Panaji: The 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India, IFFI is all set to kick off tomorrow with a glittering opening ceremony. The organizing heads of the mega film festival announced yesterday in a curtain-raiser press conference that the opening ceremony will be hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Manish Paul. In a statement, the festival director Mr. Chaitanya Prasad also added that the opening ceremony will witness Salman Khan and Ranveer Singh, along with actors Riteish Deshmukh, Genelia Deshmukh and Shraddha Kapoor.
One of the highlights of this year’s IFFI is that 75 of the brightest, young from across India will be participating in the “75 creative minds of tomorrow” competition. Martin Scorsese and Istevan Szabo will be honoured with Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award. The two towering figures of international cinema will make their presence felt virtually at the inaugural ceremony. ‘The King of all the World’ directed by Carlos Saura will be the Opening Film and this will also be the film’s international premiere. The Power of the Dog directed by Jane Campion which won the Best Director award at the Venice Film Festival will be the Mid Fest Film. As many as 55 films across the world will be showcased under the World Panorama Section The International Film Competition will be adjudged by an international jury with Chairperson Iranian filmmaker Ms. Rakhshān Banietemad. The festival comes in the wake of a somber year marred by the COVID pandemic. The organizing team has announced that homage would be paid to the lives lost from the world of cinema. Actor Puneeth Rajkumar, who recently lost his life would be honoured along with legendary actors like Dilip Kumar, filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta among others. The festival will host several world premiers of international movies. The nine-day film festival, being organized in both hybrid and virtual formats, is being held in Goa between the 20th to the 28th of November.
