Waheeda Rehman, Mammootty to be IFFI ceremonies' chief guests

While internationally-renowned actor Kabir Bedi and actress Divya Dutta have been named to compere the opening ceremony, in which Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni will be present, Asin of "Ghajini" fame would light the ceremonial lamp.

As part of the Indian Panorama, 26 feature films and 18 non-features would be screened. These includes "Shob Charitro Kalponik" (Bengali), "Harishchandrachi Factory" (Marathi), "Kaminey" (Hindi), "Ijjodu" (Kannada), "Pasanga" (Tamil), "Kutty Srank" (Malayalam) and "Haat: The Weekly Bazaar" (Rajasthani).

The bouquet of non-feature films includes "Bilal" (Bengali), "What If?" (English), "Superman of Malegaon" (Hindi), "Illisa Anagi Mahao" (Manipuri) and "Kelkkunnundo" (Malayalam).

The Indian Panorama would open with "Paltadcho Manis" (by Laxmikant Shetganokar in Konkani) and "Dot in for Motion" (Anirban Datta, English).

The tribute section would pay homage to 13 film personalities who passed away since IFFI 2008 -- Nabendu Chatterjee, Prakash Mehra, Gulshan Bawra, Leela Naidu, Shakti Samanta, Feroz Khan, Murali, A K Lohitadas, Rajan P Dev, Nilu Phule, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, R Lakshman and Nagesh.

Under Golden Jubilee Retro section, the contributions of Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore and Saumitra Chatterjee who have completed 50 years in the industry would be saluted. A retrospective of Kamal Haasan's films, who also completed 50 years in films this year, would be showcased in February 2010 in Delhi.

The International Section of IFFI includes 'Cinema of World' with 55 films from 45 countries. Another important component called 'Foreign Section' would have retrospectives of well-known directors like Gurinder Chadha, Nonzee Nimabitur, Roland Reber, Joao Batista and Manoel De Olivera.

The Continent Focus in IFFI 2009 would be films from Latin America and Country Focus would be on Croatia, Italy, Poland, Estonia and France.

Film India Worldwide would be another attraction in the cinema of world section, which will showcase films made by NRIs in collaboration with foreign filmmakers. There will also be a section on anti-war films.

The international jury comprises of prominent directors, actors and film critics like Joao Batista de Andrade, Vic Sarin, Ken'ichi Okubo, Jean-Michel Frodon and Sarika.