JOIN USBengaluru film festival: Movies to be screened under one roof
The eighth Bengaluru International Film Festival (Biffes) will kick-start in the City from January 28. For the first time, the film screenings will be held under one roof at Orion Mall, Rajajinagar. This time, film screening will also be held simultaneously in Mysuru.
The screening will take place in 11 PVR screens in Orion Mall and 4 Inox screens in Mall of Mysuru during the week-long film festival.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, S V Rajendra Singh Babu, Chairman, Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy said, “Unlike earlier where people had to travel to watch two different films, now everything will be in walking distance.”
While the fest will be inaugurated on the premises of Vidhana Soudha, the closing ceremony will take place at Mysore Palace. Raam Reddy’s directorial debut Thithi will be the inaugural film of the eighth edition of Biffes. Filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli pointed out, “Usually film festivals begin with screening of international films. This time we will inaugurate the fest with a Kannada film.” Information and Public Relations Minister Roshan Baig added that the film screening was being done in co-ordination with PVR Cinemas and Inox.
Films being screened
More than 170 films from 61 countries will be screened during the week-long festival. There are three competition sections for the film fest: Asian film section (12 films), Indian films (13 films) and Kannada films (15 films).
The film screening will be done under Contemporary Cinema of world, (country focus- Mexico, Iran and Turkey), Directors’ Retrospectives ( Istvan Szabo of Hungary and Nils Malmros of Denmark) Artist Retrospective (Dr B Sarojadevi) Dada Saheb Phalke Award Winners’ Vintages (Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan) Tributes (Siddalingaiah and KSL Swamy).
Several films screened at premier international film festivals, including Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Goa, among others, will also be screened at Biffes.
Among the new features being introduced, this year, is the documentary section. Apart from this, a section of the films are dedicated to farmer suicide as that has been an issue of concern in the State.
Film screenings apart, workshops would be conducted on topics such as sound design, film criticism, gender awareness among others.
Registrations
Delegate registration will commence from Wednesday (Jan 6) at Badami House, NR Square and Suchitra Film Society, Banashankari II Stage. Shortly the registrations will also be done at Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, Bengaluru, and Information Department Office in Mysuru. Online registration facility has also been made available. The delegate fee is Rs 600 for general public, Rs 300 for students, film society members, senior citizens and KFCC members.
Permanent venue
The Information and Public Relations minister said that a multiplex is coming up near the International Convention Centre next to the Kempe Gowda International Airport. “We are hoping that this place could be used to host the film festival in the future,” he said.