International Film Festival of India culminates in Goa

The Golden Jubilee Edition of International Film Festival of India, IFFI, culminated in Goa yesterday. The festival saw screening of 300 films of various languages from India and abroad for delegates from different parts of the world. 

The IFFI was awarded the ICFT-UNESCO Fellini medal at the closing ceremony which was received by Information and Broadcasting Secretary Amit Khare and Director of festivals Chaitanya Prasad. Governor of Goa Satyapal Malik, Chief Minister of Goa Dr. Pramod Sawant, Union minister Babul Supriyo and others were present on the occasion.

The 50th edition of the International Film Festival of India in Goa was a momentous occasion from the point of view of film festivals of India. The event saw a overwhelming participation of students from different institutes of film making, people from film fraternity and those from other walks of life. Apart from movies, the nine-day long festival had different sessions like master classes, in conversation sessions, press conferences by renowned personalities from the world of cinema. 

Felicitation of stalwarts from the film fraternity was done on the occasion which included musical maestro Ilayaraja, veteran



actor Prem Chopra, Manju Bora, Arvind Swamy and Pandit Birju Maharaj. The panel of jury was also felicitated on the occasion. Talking about the awards, the best film award was bagged by 'Particles' directed by Blaisse Harrison, the best director award went to Lijo Jose Pellissery for his film “Jallikattu”, Best actor’s award to Seu Jorge for the film Marighella, best actress to Usha Jadhav for Marathi film “Mai Ghat”, Special jury award was given away to Pema Tseden’s “Balloon”, Abhishek Shah’s National award winning film “Hellaroo” won the special mention award, whereas, the best debut film was bagged by “Monsters” and “Abou Leila. The ICFT’s UNESCO Gandhi medal award was given to “Rwanda” directed by Riccardo Salvetti. The ICFT’s UNESCO special mention award was given away to Bahattar Hoorain a film directed by Sanjay Pooran. Even as this year’s IFFI brought some amazing and classic films, but a sense of curiosity has also been created as next year’s IFFI will be focused around the legend of Indian cinema Satyajit Ray. The year 2020-21 is the centenary year of Ray and some of his classic works will surely come as treat to the hundreds and thousands of cine enthusiasts.