Goa Gears Up to Host IFFI, India's Biggest Film Festival; See Pics

As the 48th edition of International film festival of India is all set to kick start tomorrow in the Goan capital, the city puts its best forward to make it one of the most memorable festival circuits in the history.

From Indian to internationally-acclaimed film personalities, IFFI has witnessed them all. This year also the festival will see some of the finest actors, filmmakers, writers and producers take center stage. As previously announced, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh will inaugurate the opening ceremony of the festival, while, another Hindi film industry superstar Salman Khan will grace the closing ceremony.

The festival will be presenting 195 films from over 82 countries of which there will be 10 World Premieres, 10 Asian and international premieres and over 64 Indian premieres as part of the official program.

The festival will open with the much talked about new feature, Beyond The Clouds, which also marks Ishaan Khattar’s film debut. The film is directed by Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi. The world premiere of director Pablo Cesar’s Indo-Argentinian co-production Thinking of Film will close the festival. The press and delegate screenings that will begin on November 21 will also see the opening of the Indian Panaroma section, which will be inaugurated by actress Sridevi.

This year the country of focus at IFFI is Canada. It will be celebrated with a grand red carpet opening amidst the presence of noted Canadian film personalities.

The festival will also celebrate the iconic spy James Bond by dedicating a section of the festival to him, wherein nine films featuring the popular character will be screened.

The international competition section of IFFI 2017, which carries a cumulative cash prize of over Rs 1 Crore will showcase 15 of the finest films of this year, competing for the Golden and Silver Peacock awards. The International Competition jury will be headed by renowned filmmaker Muzaffar Ali, who is joined by his fellow jury members festival director Maxine Williamson from Australia, actor-director Tzahi Grad from Israel, Russian cinematographer Vladislav Opelyants, British director and production designer Roger Christian.

Apart from that, the festival will honor megastar Amitabh Bachchan with the Indian film personality of the year award. This year, Karan Johar, Ekta Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Huma Qureshi, Jhanvi Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Anurag Basu, Farah Khan, Shekhar Kapur, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and many more will be attending the festival.