As many as 50 films from 22 countries will be screened at the 15th Thiruvananthapuram International Film Festival (TIFF 2010) beginning here on Friday under the auspices of Chalachitra.
Chalachitra president Rajamohan and secretary Narayanan told a press conference here on Monday that the festival would have a world cinema section, comprising 22 films, and an Asian cinema section, featuring nine films. The other sections are focus on Dutch cinema, French sentimental comedies and Argentinian retrospective.
They said 30 films would be premiered at the festival. Oscar-winning movie ‘The Hurt Locker,' directed by Kathryn Bigelow, will be the inaugural film. Filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta is scheduled to inaugurate the festival. Orna Sagiv, Consul-General of Israel, Mumbai, and Ila Singh, senior programme officer, Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, New Delhi, are expected to be present at the inaugural function.
The Kalabhavan theatre will be the main venue. The two sections titled Focus: Dutch Cinema and Retrospective: Argentine Cinema will be shown at the Kesari Memorial Auditorium.
Some of the films to be screened during the festival include ‘Broken Embraces' (Spain), directed by Pedro Almodovar; ‘Lovely Bones' (New Zealand-U.K.- U.S.) by Peter Jackson; ‘Hania' (Poland) by Janusz Kaminski; ‘A Hero in Rome' (Italy) by Panos Angelooulos; ‘Away We Go' (U.K.-U.S.) by Sam Mendes; and ‘Inglorious Bastards' (U.S.) by Quentin Tarantino.
The festival will conclude on August 5 with the screening of Bengali film ‘Antaheen,' directed by Anirudh Roy Choudhary.
Mr. Rajamohan said the festival would be open to members of Chalachitra, delegates and students. The festival office would start functioning at the Kalabhavan theatre on Thursday. The delegate fee is Rs.300.
