The 10 edition of Bengaluru International Film Festival will be held in Bengaluru. The Inauguration of the Festival will be held on the evening of Thursday, February 22, 2018, and Closing Ceremony and award distribution on the evening of Thursday March 1, 2018.

 

The opening event will be held in the presence of National and International delegates, Film makers and Film Celebrities on the grand steps of VidhanaSoudha and will be presided over by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Sri Siddaramaiah.

 

The closing event will be held at VidhanaSoudha and His Excellency, the Governor of Karnataka Sri Vajubhai Vala kindly consented to present the awards to the winners of the Competitions under Asian, Indian and Kannada films Sections.

 

The Foreign delegate contingent include Mr. Marc Baschet, Film Producer & Cinematographer  from France, Ms. Claire Dobbin, Australian script Advisor/ Editor, Prof. Kirill Razlogov, Film Critic and Professor of cultural studies from Russia,  Ms. Nina Kochelyaeva from Russian  Film Institute, Fatemeh Motamedarya, well know Actress from Iran, Ms. GulbaraTolomushova, Film Producer/filmmaker from Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Dan Koh, Film Producer from Singapore, Mr. Dongshik Lee, Film Distributor from Korea, Film Critic & Historian Mr. Derek Malcolm from England and a host of film makers from the Asian region like Japan, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, Israel etc., representing their film in the Competition section.

 

Regular screenings for the Delegates will commence on February 23, 2018

 

The screenings will be held at 11 screens – PVR Cinemas – ORION MALL, Rajajinagar, Bengaluru

and Dr. Raj Bhavan, Karnataka Film Artists Association, Chamrajpet, Bangalore

 

The Content of the Festival: Nearly about 200films – from about 60 Countries – under various categories

 

Highlights of the Festival Films:

 

 

• Competition Sections : Asian Competition

 

                             Indian Competition

                             Kannada Competition

                                        Kannada Popular Entertainment

Lists of films selected for the competition sections will be notified on our official website biffes.in

 

 

• Contemporary Cinema of world

• Country Focus : Thailand,  Canada, Germany and Latin American Region

 

 

 

• Retrospectives : Aleksey Balabanov Director from Russia

 

Sumitra Bhave & Sunil Sukhtankar –Directors-Marathi (India)

1. Lakshminarayan, Director – Kannada

 

 

• Homages : Mrs. Parvathamma Rajkumar, R.N. Sudarshan, Kashinath

 

1. Chandrashekar, Krishna kumari, B.V. Radha, & Shashi Kapoor

 

 

• Remembering Classics:  50th year of Making of Samskara

 

 

 

• Showcasing of films made in little known Indian dialects like Tulu, Kurmali, Pahari, Braj etc., Under special section “Unsung Incredible India”

 

Quite a good number of films in Asian Category and rest of the World  have reputation of having participated in other major international film festivals of Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Goa, Mumbai, Kerala etc.,

 

Films made by world renowned filmmakers such as  Andrey Zvyagintsev from Russia, Naomi Kawasi from Japan, Aki Kaurismaki from Finland, Ruben Ostlund from Sweden, Sebastian Lelio from Chile, Hong Sangsoo from South Korea, Valeska Griesbach from Germany  Michel Hazanavicius from France, Deepa Mehta from Canada, Kaouther Ben Hania from Tunisia, Tony Gatlif from Greece and others are being screened in the event.

 

BIFFES has two special sections: FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Film Critics Award Winners and NETPAC Award winners, which are always the unique features of our event.

 

Documentary films section focusing on the festival theme “Human Rights and Social Justice” is being curated by well known documentary film maker Ms. Reena Mohan from New Delhi in consultation with Ace Cinematographer Mr. G.S. Bhaskar and Documentary film maker Mr. Vinod Raja. Special homage will be paid to Mr. Chalam Bennurkar and Ms. Gauri Lankesh.

 

There will also be a special section on Biographical pictures  generally  referred to as “BIOPICS” which includes features/documentaries made on film makers, Writers, Artists , Musicians etc., The section includes films on Film Maker Goddard, Script writer Nabyendu Ghosh, Karl Marx, Tamil Litterateur Ashok Mitran and first Indian Lady Medical Practitioner Dr. Rakumabhai amongst others.

 

Invited Delegates:

 

Invited delegates will include film makers, journalists, Film Critics, Film festival Programmers, Academicians etc., from across the world. Large participation of Foreign Consulate officials, Foreign cultural organization representatives in India is also expected.

 

Indian delegates include filmmakers, Film Festival organizers/Programmers, Journalists and critics from Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, North East, Delhi, Kerala and Tamilnadu.

 

Workshops, Seminars and Master Classes will also be held during the course of the Festival.

The scheduled programmes are:

 

1. Dadasaheb Award Winner Late V.K. Murthy memorial lecture to be delivered by Mr. Tom Cowan, the renowned Cinematographer from Australia who worked for the Kannada classic ‘Samskara’.

 

2. Screen Writing Workshop by Ms Claire Dobbin, International Script Mentor and Chairman, Melbourne International Film Festival. Mr. P. Sheshadri, the eminent Kannada filmmaker will be coordinating the event.

 

3. An interactive session with the celebrated Bollywood film maker Mr. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, Director of Ranga De Basanti on Challenges to Filmmakers in present times.

 

4. Talk by eminent Filmmaker, Screen writer, Producer Mr. Bharath Bala Ganapathy on Production design in Indian Cinema.

 

5. A study of films by Satyajit Ray – Talk show by Mr. Swapan Mullick, Film critic, Kolkota coordinated  by Satyajit Ray Film Society, Bengaluru

 

6. Global Co production scenario – An interaction with Mr. Marc Baschet, Film Producer/Director  from France and Mr. Rahul Puri, Mukta Arts, Mumbai.

 

7. Copyright issues in Entertainment Industry –

 

8. Special discussion on emerging technologies –various possibilities of adapting Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality in Film Festivals – promoting culture with the Future Technology.

 

9. Seminar on “Gender Sensitivity” –An interactive session with Mr. Ananth Mahadevan, Director, Dr. Rakumabhai, Ms.  and Ms. Choodi Shivaram  Director of ‘At the Altar of India’s Freedom’ – INA Veterans of Malaysia moderated by Vimala, AIDWA

 

10. Master Classes on Documentary film making, Scripting/Curating.

 

11. Round table on promotion of Indian Regional Cinema at various film festivals with new initiatives -online promotion and distribution.

 

12. Interaction between film makers and Critics on Film Criticism, by FIPRESCI, a global collective of film critics. Guest of honor Mr. Derek Malcolm, British Film Critic & Historian

All the above events are scheduled to be held in one of the screens at PVR cinemas.