BIFFes to kick off in first week of April

Coming up this time are events to honour the memory of Bhimsen Joshi, Satyajit Ray and SPB

The 13th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) will be held in the first week of April. The schedule and venue will be finalised in a couple of days.

The eight-day film festival will feature an Asian competition category, an Indian section, and a Kannada films competition section. Entries close on February 8.

Announcing details at a press conference, Suneel Puranik, president of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, said that the festival would pay birth centenary tributes to filmmaker Satyajit Ray and vocalist Bhimsen Joshi.

Also slated is a tribute to S P Balasubrahmanyam, the legendary playback singer, who passed away September last.

Puranik said details of the workshops, cinema appreciation course and master classes will be finalised in a week.

Dr P S Harsha, commissioner, Department of Information and Public Relations, said that he was impressed with the way Puranik was helming the festival.

“Bengaluru is the epicenter of art, music, culture and performing arts. We propose to take this film festival to the next level,” he said.

After BIFFes, sometime in the future, Puranik, proposes to hold regional film festivals in Shivamogga, Mangaluru and Madikeri where Kannada, Tulu, Kodava, Banjara, Konkani and Beary language films would be screened. “This is an attempt to acknowledge the importance of regional languages,” he said.