20 films competing in IFFI
20 movies, including National award winner Kannada director P. Seshadri's Vimukthi, have been chosen for the international competition section of the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), commencing from November 23 in Goa.
Other films, selected by the panel of juries headed by filmmaker Pankaj Parashar, include Anant Mahadevan's Red Alert (Hindi), Amol Palekar's And it Goes (English), Saurabh Shukla's I am 24 (Hindi), Makrand Deshpande's Shahrukh Bola Khoobsurat Hai Tu (Hindi), Sangram Gaikwad's Zagor (Konkani), Tapan Acharya's Janma (Marathi) and Sanjaeev Srinivas' God lives in the Himalayas (English).
Eight films will be screened in the Indian premieres category. Ending on December 3, the nine-day festival will award the winner of the International Competition with a prize of £84,700 (140,000 US$).
Meanwhile, the organizers confirmed that English actor Sir Ben Kingsley will be the chief guest at the inaugural function of IFFI. Sir Ben, 65, played the role of Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi in 1982 for which he won the Academy Award (Best Actor). IFFI 2009 is expected to involve participation from at least 50 countries with 200 world acclaimed films and 6,000 delegates. All arrangements for IFFI will be completed by November 11.
