Line-up for IFFI's Indian Panorama unveiled, regional films lead again

New Delhi: The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) has announced the line-up for Indian Panorama segment films for the year 2021, and once again the regional-language movies have dominated the segment. The nine-day film gala will be organised in a hybrid format - virtual and physical - from November 20 to 28.

The organisers have picked up 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films for screening under the Indian Panorama segment, a press release stated. Acclaimed Filmmaker and actor SV Rajendra Singh Babu headed the jury that picked the movies for the feature category from a wide pool of 221 contemporary Indian films. Filmmaker Aimee Baruah's Dimasa-language movie 'Semkhor' will be the opening feature film.

India's entry for the 2022 Academy Awards, Tamil movie 'Koozhangal', will be screened in the category, which is dominated by Marathi and Bengali movies. Actor Parambrata Chattopadhyay's directorial "Abhijaan" is among the five Bengali movies, while Marathi films include features like "Godavari", "Funeral" and "Bittersweet". There are four Kannada movies in the segment as well. Hindi-language movies are "Eight Down Toofaan Mail" and "Alpha Beta Gamma", besides two Malayalam films.

For the non-feature category, director Rajiv Parkash's "Ved?The Visionary" will serve as the opening movie.

A jury headed by documentary filmmaker S. Nallamuthu considered 203 contemporary Indian non-feature films before picking the final 20.

The list includes seven Hindi films such as "Bharat, Prakriti Ka Balak", "Teen Adhyay", "Jugalbandi" and "The Knocker". It also has three English movies, along with two Bengali and one film each from Assamese, Garhwali, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Manipuri, Santali and Tamil languages.

According to the organisers, the package of films exemplifies the capacity of "our emerging and established filmmakers to document, investigate, entertain and also reflect contemporary Indian values".

The 52nd edition of International Film Festival of India is being organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with the Goa government.