Shyam Benegal to Inaugurate ALIIFF 2015
Iranian film ‘Taxi’- Opening Film at the Festival
50 films to compete for the Prestigious Golden Frame Awards
Renowned Indian film maker Shyam Benegal will inaugurate the All Lights India International Film Festival (ALIIFF) and Indywood Film Market on 15th November 6.00PM, at Hotel Le Meridien. ‘Taxi’ (Golden Bear Winner, Berlin), directed by Iran’s most influential director Jafar Panahi will be the opening film at Cinepolis on 15th November 2015 5.00PM preceded by a grand red carpet. The screenings will start from morning 10.30AM onwards same day with inauguration of world cinema section, short film section and special screening section.
All Lights Film Society along with Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) is organizing ALIIFF 2015 from November 15-19 at Cinepolis, Center Square Mall Cochin. The festival will also host South Asia’s biggest film market – Indywood Film Market (IFM) from November 16-18 at Hotel Le Meridien, Cochin. FEFKA along with the All Lights Film Society is taking every effort to bring a perfect mélange of renowned filmmakers, technicians, actors and other celebrities of international repute from film industries around the world to ALIIFF-IFM.
Indywood Film Market will kick start with a unique film awards function, honouring the film business and trade. The International Film Business Awards (IFBA) will honour the top distributors and sales agents of International and Indian trade regions. “Distributors and Producers are the people who contribute most to the business trade but eventually are also the most under projected section. IFBA will honor them for their contributions” said Sohan Roy, Founder Director of ALIIFF-IFM announced at the press conference held today. He was accompanied by B Unnikrishnan, Festival Director and FEFKA office bearers.
Indywood Film Market is sponsored by EPICA, the pioneers in 3D Animation, 2D-3D Conversion, VFX & first to introduce glasses-free 3D TVs & Tabs and the Indywood Film Business Awards are sponsored by Mexican group- Clayhorse products.
The festival will be screening a total of 131 films from 34 countries across 18 sections. 2015 is the Golden Jubilee Year of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s filmmaking and to commemorate the same, ALIIFF will screen ‘Master Crafts of Adoor’ and the films to be showcased in this category are Koodiyettam (1978) and Anantharam (1987). The festival also pays tribute to lat Yash Chopra by holding a first ever Indian Retrospection of his movies.
A total of 50 films will compete for the prestigious Golden Frame Awards in the festival under the categories Feature Films, Debut Film Maker’s Film, Indywood Panorama, Documentary & Documentary Features and Short Films. The films will be evaluated by an eminent jury led by Iranian Director Khosro Masoumi
Czech and Slovak films will be screened in the Country Focus section. Marathi film industry led by Subodh Bhave and noted film maker Gajendra Ahire shall represent the Guest Indian industry. The festival has thematic showcases like Cinema for Care, Cinema for Women, Cinema for Children, World Cinema and Musicals. Other categories where films would be screened are Malayalam Movie Section, NETPAC Award winning Films, Special Screenings, etc.
The five day film festival will also feature a series of workshops on Digital Film Making & Photography, Acting, Documentary Making and Crowd Funding. Apart from these, interactive sessions with Bollywood hit maker director – Kabir Khan and Multi Dimensional Film Maker Lijo Jose Pellissery will also be hosted by ALIIFF.
“The objective of Indywood Film Market is to kick start a dream of making India the biggest and the most powerful film trade in the world. This will happen only if we start looking into the objectives of having new generation exhibition centers, production technologies on par with Hollywood standards, establishing top notch film schools and training, holding large markets and film festival. The inaugural edition of IFM will address all these facets. It will also launch the unique concept of Film Tourism.” Added Sohan Roy.
B Unnikrishnan said that the film industry in Kerala has officially approved ALIIFF-IFM and has extended all support for its success. The Indywood Film Market is a platform for Indian film industry to engage with the film industries worldwide in every aspect of cinema business.
“With ALIIFF-IFM we are planning to showcase the Indian film industry in a big manner to the world. Both the events will be held in various prominent film cities every year. We have already generated a lot of interest among the film fraternity worldwide with this fest and we are hopeful that the first edition of this festival will throw open a whole new world for Indian cinema. The involvement of FEFKA and the Film industry in Kerala has increased the color of the event and is a sign of positive proceedings” Said Sohan Roy, addressing the media.
The organizers are upbeat that the festival will be a trendsetter for Indian festivals with many unique features. With a unified Indian industry concept, the festival already has brand ambassadors for each language of Indian cinema – Kamal Hassan for the Tamil Movies, Mohanlal for Malayalam; Daggubati Venkatesh for Telugu; Prosenjith Chatterjee for Bengali; Kicha Sudeep for Kannada; Subodh Bhave for Marathi. Bollywood Actress Kalki Koechlin is the brand ambassador for Cinema for Care; Manju Warrier for Cinema for Women and Nikki Gilrani for Cinema for Children.
The closing event would be a grand Red Carpet Award Night with invited guests from across the globe on 19th November 6.00PM at Gokulam Park Cochin.
The Delegate registration to the festival has begun and it can be done at the official website of ALIIFF, www.aliiff.com . General delegate pass is priced Rs. 500. Students can secure a pass for Rs. 300 on furnishing identification issued by their educational institutions. Daily visitor pass is also available for Rs. 180 which enables the delegate to view the entire showcase of a day at the festival.
For more details:
Email: media@aliiff.com
Contact:
ALIIFF: +91 9946108153 / +91 9539000517
Thought Factory: +91 9846330500 / +91 9446520500
