Hindustan Times : 15 films vie for golden peacock award as Goa hosts IFFI this month

By HT Correspondent

The golden peacock award, earmarked for the best film, carries a cash prize of ₹40 lakh. The best director’s award will bag the silver peacock award, which carries a cash prize of ₹15 lakh

Artists perform on the concluding day of an earlier edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Panaji, Goa. (PTI/File)

Fifteen films, including Simon Franco’s Charlotte and Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari’s Land of Dreams, will vie for the top awards as Goa will host the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) from November 20-28.

The golden peacock award, earmarked for the best film at the festival, carries a cash prize of ₹40 lakh, to be shared equally by the producer and the director.

The best director’s award will bag the silver peacock award, which carries a cash prize of ₹15 lakh.

The IFFI jury comprises renowned Iranian filmmaker Rakhshān Banietemad along with British film producer Stephen Woolley, Colombian filmmaker Ciro Guerra, Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara and the host nation’s producer-director Nila Madhab Panda.

The films include Any Day Now by Hamy Ramezan, which narrates the story of 13-year-old Ramin Mehdipour and his Iranian family who reside in a refugee centre in Finland.

The line-up also includes Charlotte, which tells the story of a forgotten movie star (Ángela Molina), who learns that the director who made her famous will be filming his last film in Paraguay. She sets out on an unusual journey in search of something more than just getting the lead role.

The film Interglade, by Radu Muntean, captures the story of three friends on an a driving trip into villages down mountain roads.

Land of Dreams is a movie about Simin, an Iranian woman on a journey to discover what it means to be a free American.

Other films include Nikhil Mahajan’s Marathi movie Godavari, Masakazu Kaneko’s Ring Wandering, and Saving One Who Was Dead by Václav Kadrnka.

Article published in [www.hindustantimes.com]