Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh and Shraddha Kapoor to attend opening ceremony of IFFI 2021

Actor Salman Khan and Ranveer Singh among others will be present at the opening ceremony of the 52nd Indian International Film Festival of India to be held from November 20 in Goa.

Speaking at the press conference Additional Director General, Directorate of Film Festival Chaitanya Prasad said that actors like Ranveer Singh, Salman Khan, and Shraddha Kapoor will be guests at the opening ceremony of IFFI and the show will be moderated by Karan Johar and Maniesh Paul.

Prasad informed that for the first time in the history of IFFI, major OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Zee 5 and Viacom will be participating in the festival, with releases, masterclasses and more.

IFFI will feature 148 films from about 73 countries in the International Section. The festival will have about 12 world premieres, about 7 international premieres, 26 Asia premieres and about 64 India premieres. IFFI received 624 films from 95 countries this time, up from 69 countries in the previous edition.

The two major global cinematic giants Martin Scorsese and Istevan Szabo are being honoured with the first Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award, informed the Festival Director. “Unfortunately, they will not be attending the festival physically but their video messages conveying acceptance of the award will be played”.

The opening feature film of Indian Panorama 2021 is the film Semkhor (Dimasa) directed by Ms. Aimee Baruah. This is the first ever film made in Dimasa (dialect from Assam) to be featured at IFFI, informed Shri Prasad. Ved…The Visionary (English) directed by Shri Rajiv Parkash is the opening non-feature film in the Indian Panorama section.

‘The King of all the World’ (El Rey de Todo El Mundo) directed by Carlos Saura will be the Opening Film and this will also be the film’s international premier. The Power of the Dog directed by Jane Campion, Winner of Best Director at Venice Film Festival will be the Mid Fest Film. The Director informed that this film came to us through Netflix, they facilitated the India premiere of the film, he added.

IFFI 52 will come to a close with the screening of Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

There will be about 18 specially curated films presented as part of the ongoing celebration of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

The Festival Director informed that the International Jury chaired by the Iranian filmmaker Rakhshān Banietemad is coming to attend the festival.

Earlier in the day Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur announced that the Indian Film Personality of the Year Award for 2021 will be conferred on actress Hema Malini and CBFC Prasoon Joshi.