BANGALORE, November 30: The absence of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy (KCA) president and resignation of Minister for Information Santosh Lad has become a cause of concern for organisers of the 6th Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFes) scheduled to be held from December 26, 2013 to January 2, 2014.
According to official sources, the post of president KCA that has been lying vacant for the past six months, will be filled shortly.
The two previous BIFFes were held under the leadership of director T.S. Nagabharana and actor Tara.
Organising Committee of BIFFes, chaired by former Information Minister Santosh Lad, met only once on November 14. Meanwhile, apathy of the government in forming a permanent film directorate has proved costly. Speaking to The Hindu, artistic director of BIFFes H.N. Narahari said, “the process of collecting so many films over the years is a gigantic task and in order to get other countries to send their films for our festival, we need a permanent directorate dedicated to the film festival.”
Mr. Rao added that “while festivals with directorates across the world got over 200 to 300 ‘screeners’ (film DVDs sent for selection during film festivals), BIFFes could get only 100 screeners due to paucity of time and absence of directorate.”
However, according to sources in KCA, the artistic wing of the festival has selected over 130 foreign films and the process of selecting kannada and retrospective films are on. There will be over 245 screenings in seven screens including Fun Cinema, Fame Lido, Sulochana and Priyadarshini.
Iranian film director and producer Pouran Derakhshandeh and Sri Lankan film maker Malini Fonseka are likely to attend the festival with their films. Dr. Rajkumar’s films would be the major attraction in the retrospective category. Films of French director Claire Denis, Serbian director Goron Pascaligevic, Mike Light of United Kingdom and India’s Bimal Roy will also be featured in the retrospective category.
This edition of the festival will offer a bouquet of films that were critically acclaimed. 27 down by Avatar Kaul, Murder on the Orient Express by Sidney Lummet will be among the other films screened.
