Goa Gears Up For 57th IFFI: 159 Films From 86 Countries, Dhurandhar, Kantara Chapter 1 Steals Spotlight

Panaji: The Indian Panorama section of the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), set to take place in Goa, is gearing up for a star-studded showcase, with some of the most talked-about films from Indian cinema making it to the prestigious selection. 

The lineup features Ranveer Singh-starrer ‘Dhurandhar’, Rishab Shetty’s ‘Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1’, and Chiranjeevi's ‘Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu’ among several other titles. 

Leena Yadav’s ‘Becoming’ in Ladakhi will further kick off the non-feature segment. As a whole, IFFI’s annual survey of Indian filmmaking will bring 25 features and 20 non-features to the festival this year. 

While ‘Dhurandhar’ and ‘Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1’ hold their positions in the five-title Mainstream Cinema, they will be joined by Samir Tewari’s Marathi film ‘Baapya’, Anil Ravipudi’s Telugu title ‘Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu’, Pravin Vitthal Tarde’s ‘Deool Band 2’ (Marathi). 

On the other hand, a 12-member jury chaired by Indian National Film Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar picked the features from 404 submissions, whereas the other 20 titles include Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Tulu, and Nyishi. 

Among them are Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s ‘The Kerala Story 2 Goes Beyond’, Bharatbala Ganapathy’s ‘Banaras’, Akhil Sathyan’s Malayalam film ‘Sarvam Maya’, P. Sheshadri’s Kannada film ‘Ruby-Cube’ and Singeetham Srinivasa Rao’s Telugu feature ‘Sing Geetham’. 

Sahil Shah’s ‘Birds on Ice’ in Ladakhi and Duyu Tabyo’s Nyishi-language film ‘Urum’ also made the cut.

The same jury has shortlisted five films for IFFI’s best debut director of an Indian feature film award. Among the nominees are Ravi Varma Namburi’s ‘Chennai Love Story’ (Telugu), Samarpan Sengupta’s ‘Pratyabartan’ (Bengali), Jeejivisha Kale’s ‘Tighi’ (Marathi), Raja Shabir Mohd Khan’s ‘Sledge’ (Kashmiri) and Vishal Chaturvedi’s ‘Hanuman Ansh’ (Hindi). 

The festival has also named five nominees for its best web series prize.

Coming to the non-feature side, a six-member jury led by director and educator Himanshu Sekhar Khatua whittled 358 entries down to 20. Among them are Bhasker Vishwanathan’s ‘The Unseen Holy River – Saraswati’, Aimee Baruah’s Assamese film ‘Red Carpet’, Suraj Kumar’s English-language ‘Nirmanjali: The Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki ’, and Baba Tassaduq Hussain’s Kashmiri title ‘Naqsh-e-Daur’. 

The 57th edition of IFFI will feature 159 films from 86 countries, selected from approximately 1,400 submissions. 

Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski's 'Fatherland' will open the festival.

The nine-day festival will take place from November 20 to 28 under the theme 'Stories Without Borders'.