City to host film festival

BANGALORE: The Bengaluru International Film Festival this year is all set to bring 175 films from 40 countries. Organised by  Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, the festival will take place between December 15 and 22.Among the 175 films, which are going to be screened across nine specific locations in the city, 130 films belong to the foreign films category, 30 from India and 15 from the Kannada film industry. The films will be screened at Fame Lido Complex along with other venues like Central Inox at JP Nagar, Rejoyz at Malleswaram, Department of Information on Infantry Road, Badami House at N R Square and Suchitra Film Society in Banashankari.Speaking to reporters at a press conference, T S Nagabharana said that this year, the focus will be on Polish, Egyptian, Asian, Chitrabharati and Kannada cinema. The festival will also screen some retrospective which include Michael Cacoyannis and Theo Angelopoulos of Greece, Hsiao-hsien Hou of Taiwan, Dariush Mehrjui of Iran, G Aravindan from Malayalam cinema and Puttanna Kanagal from Kannada.With a specific section of films dedicated to politics, the organisers said that there are films that have been specially chosen for this category. “They are not films that are contextual, but films that explore general political concepts,” said one of the organisers.