Chinese drama 'Wheat' to open Goa film fest

Actors Waheeda Rehman, Asin and Kabir Bedi would be here for the inaugural with Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni, Goa Chief Minister Digmabar Kamat told a media briefing.

Nearly 6,000 delegates have signed up for the cinematic event that will be covered by over 320 media representatives. Pedro Almodovar’s latest release ‘Broken Embraces’ will be screened at the closing on December 3.

The 11-day event will screen some 300 films, 55 of these in the popular Cinema of the World section that has a selection from around 47 countries. Feature films from Asia, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa have a separate competition section.

The Golden Peacock for best film, which carries a cash prize of Rs 40 lakh, will this year be shared by both the director and the producer, and will not be restricted to a debut film, Khan said. Atanu Ghosh’s Bengali film ‘Angshumaner Chhobi’  and Satish Manwar’s Marathi film  ‘Gabricha Paus’ feature in the competition section with 13 other films from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Kazakhstan, Iran, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Argentina. Brazilian director Joao Batista de Andrade, who will feature in the tributes section, also heads the competition jury this year.

The foreign retrospective will feature UK-based director Gurinder Chadha, Thai filmmaker Nonzee Nimibutr, noted German director Roland Reber and Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira.