Organised by Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy for Government of India, the fest will see 175 feature films screened in four categories in the competition section. The festival will screen 130 foreign films from 40 countries, 30 from Indian cinema and 15 Kannada films.

Addressing the media, T S Nagabharana, festival director and chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy said that a special preference will be given to Kannada films in all the categories. “A provision has been made to screen one Kannada film in World Cinema, Asian Cinema and Indian Cinema categories. And Kannada Cinema category is exclusively for Kannada films. We are hoping to get more entries in all the sections,”
he said.

“In the competition section, four awards have been instituted. The Best Film will be awarded with ‘Golden Berunda’ title and will get a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh; Best Director in World Cinema will be awarded with ‘Silver Berunda’ and Rs 5 lakh; the critic’s award titled Suchitra Sanman will be given for the best film in Indian Cinema category and ‘Society’s Pick’ will be for the best film in Kannada Cinema – both will have prize money of Rs two lakh each,” he added.

H N Narahari Rao, artistic director, said that this year’s festival will focus on Polish, Egyptian and Asian cinemas. “Films directed by Michael Cacoyannis and Theo Angelopoulos of Greece, Hsiao-hsien Hou of Taiwan, Dariush Mehrjui of Iran will be screened under ‘Retrospective’ category. Dariush Mehrjui, who popularised new wave film in Iran, will be attending the film festival. Puttanna Kanagal’s seven films will also be screened during the festival,” he said. He informed that seminars and special talks on cinema will also be conducted.

There will be a special screening called ‘Nostalgia’ for senior citizens which will feature old films from different languages. The films will be screened on four screens in Fame Lido Complex and one screen each at Central Inox in JP Nagar, Rejoyz at Malleswaram, Department of Information on Infantry Road, Badami House at NR Square and Suchitra Film Society in Banashankari 2nd Stage.

All Kannada films are eligible for participation in the competition. The entry forms can be downloaded from the website: www.biffes.in or collected at Festival Office, 4th BIFFES, Badami House, NR Square.

The last date to send the entries is November 15.