Over the years, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) has created a firm place for itself in the global Film Festival calendar. Organised under the aegis of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, IFFI has become one of the most important Film Festivals in the Asian region. The 48th edition of the Festival will present a strong International and Indian film programme. The IFFI 2017 Film Programme will showcase a total of 195 films from across 82 countries, thus, vouching for the diversity of cinematic endeavours from around the globe and their representation at the Festival.
The Cinema of the World section showcases 82 films of several national, international and transnational productions and co-productions of exceptional mainstream, independent and art cinema. The Indian Panorama section – introduced in 1978 and devoted to showcasing the best new Indian films of the year – showcases about 26 feature and non-feature films in 24 languages selected by our eminent jury from a total of 178 features and 161 non-features entries. The features have films by accomplished directors, as well as those by young, debut filmmakers. The non-feature films selected represent the cultural and aesthetic flavors of different parts of the country, making every film special.
The Festival is also delighted to open this year’s edition with renowned filmmaker Majid Majidi’s ‘Beyond The Clouds’ and close with the well-regarded filmmaker, Pablo Cesar’s ‘Thinking of Him’. Both the films reflect true Indo-International collaborations and the Make in India outlook.
The Country Focus on Canada has been taken forward in association with Telefilm Canada and with collaboration from the TIFF. IIFI will also have a selection of films from the “Biennale College” of the Venice International Film Festival.
IIFI's Indian Retrospective this year focusses on the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2016), K. Viswanath, a man who turned from being an audiographer to becoming a director, screenwriter and character actor who has made invaluable contributions in Hindi, Tamil and Telegu Cinema. His films not only have strong content, endearing narratives, honest handling, but also cultural authenticity, which has great appeal for the masses.
This year our film fraternity has lost some eminent personalities, and IFFI will pay homage and tribute to them and to their work, which lives on. IFFI will pay tribute to Om Puri, Abdul Majid, Vinod Khanna, Tom Alter, Reema Lagoo, Kundan Shah, J. Jayalalithaa, Dasari Narayan Rao & Ramananda Sen Gupta for their contributions to the film industry.