The 11th edition of Bengaluru International Film Festival (Biffes) will be marking the birth centenary of the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, one of the greatest auteur of the 20th century, through a special retrospective.
There will also be a retrospective on the master of new wave cinema in India, Mrinal Sen, who passed away recently, and Kannada actor the late Ambareesh.
Bergman has directed 45 feature films in his career of six decades. The cream of his repertoire will be screened in the retrospective category of Biffes. Interestingly, the spark of inspiration for Jnanapith recipient writer U. .R Ananthamurthy to write his classic work Samskara was The Seventh Seal , directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1957.
Country focus
The Biffes committee is exploring the possibility of picking either Poland or Iran for the country focus. During the previous edition, the country in focus was Germany.
Meanwhile, according to sources, over 60 films are competing to be part of the 12 to be selected for the Competition section of Kannada films. Besides that, Kannada films are also competing in the Indian and Asian sections. A total of 14 Kannada films will be screened at the festival.
Considering the catastrophic floods that ravaged Kerala and Kodagu in Karnataka, which turned the spotlight on the ecological destruction caused by human interference, Biffes has chosen to make ‘Nature's Fury’ as the theme of this edition.
Festival postponed
The Biffes, which was scheduled to be held from February 7 to 14, has been postponed to February 21 to 28 to avoid a clash with the budget session of the State Assembly.
