Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday inaugurated the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) at the Nishagandhi Open Air Auditorium, Thiruvananthapuam.

Veteran actor Jaya Bachchan was the chief guest at the function, which was presided over by Minister for Sports and Cinema K.B. Ganesh Kumar. Cultural Affairs Minister K.C. Joseph, Minister for Transport and Devaswom V.S. Sivakumar, Sasi Tharoor MP, Culture Secretary Sajan Peter, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy chairman and festival director S. Priyadarshan, vice-chairman Gandhimathi Balan, festival deputy director Bina Paul Venugopal, Kerala Film Chamber president B. Sasikumar, FEFCA president B. Unnikrishnan and MACTA chairman Harikumar were present.

Versatile actor Om Puri, veteran Malayalam actor Sukumari, and jury chairman and Australian film-maker Bruce Beresford also graced the occasion.

Inaugurating the week-long event, he said that apart from providing a global platform, the IFFK would help Malayalam cinema to imbibe the cinematic innovations experimented in films from across the world.

Jaya Bachchan said that it was after a gap of 20 years that she was visiting Thiruvananthapuram. ‘‘I had come here in 1991 when the city hosted the Children's Film Festival. I have very fond memories of this place,'' she said.

Bachchan added that the presence of stalwarts such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan and P.K. Nair emphasised the quality and legitimacy of the IFFK. The function was followed by the screening of the inaugural film Under the Hawthron Tree.