16th IFFK from Today

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 16th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will begin on Friday with the gala screening of Chinese movie ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate the week-long festival at a function to be held at Nishagandhi Open Air Auditorium at 6 pm. Minister for Cinema K B Ganeshkumar will preside over the function in which Bollywood actorJaya Bachchan will be the chief guest. A total of 196 films from 65 countries will be exhibited under 15 different categories in IFFK 2011. Prominent film personalities, including veteran Malayalam actor Madhu, will be honoured in the retrospective section.  Films of French director Robert Bresson, Japanese directors Nagisa Oshima and Yasuzo Masumura, Greek film maker Theodoros Angelopoulos and American film maker Adolfas Mekas are also scheduled to be screened at the retrospective session.The Indian and Malayalam film sections include seven movies each. 73 films from different countries will be screened in ‘World Cinema’ category. Seven films are to be exhibited in ‘Homage Section.’ The IFFK 2011 will pay tribute to Mani Kaul, Raol Ruiz, Tareeque Masud and Elizabeth Taylor. A package of eight films from the first production house of post war Germany -DEFA- will be screened in the ‘Defa section’. The inaugural ceremony will be followed by a cultural show - As Destiny’s Dice- directed by T K Rajeevkumar. A project to promote Malayalam cinema- ‘Marketing Malayalam Cinema’ will be organised as part of the festival.  The festival movies will be screened at 11 venues in the city.