The Film and Television Institute of India, Pune is set to get unique mileage during the International Film Festival of India being held from 20th to 30th November at Panaji, Goa.

Consecutively for the second year, the IFFI has offered a special section for FTII films. This section will feature five films made during the current year. These films will be screened in 35mm format on 25th November at 5.30 pm. Prabhat Nagari Film 1 (Aman Wadhan), Juju (Sujata Chowdhury), Green Balcony Aunty (Faisal Rahman), Tatpatchat (Vasudev Keluskar) and Tapish (Rakesh Sharma).

Apart from the two diploma films, Afterglow (Kaushal Oza) and Allah is Great (Andrea Iannetta) selected for the non-feature section of Indian Panorama and will be screened at Inox-II, Old GMC building on 23rd November, the FTII will find its strong representation in this international event.

Some of the films selected for screening such as Kramasha (Amit Dutta), Spandan (Shailesh Dupare), Undertakers (Emmanuel Palo) are considered as classic FTII films now. Besides, apart from films made in Hindi and English, this section also highlights some of the best films made in other Indian languages for example, Kaatal (Marathi, Vikrant Pawar), Ekti Kaktaliyo Golpo (Bengali, Tathagat Singha) and Vadhakramam (K. M. Kamal).

An interesting feature of this festival is prominent films by women students of FTII. Rizwan (Deepti Khurana) has won Special Jury Mention at 5th International Short and Documentary Film Festival of Kerala held in June last. Saanjh(Jasmine Kaur, National Award for Best film on Family Welfare)), Dhin Tak Dha (Shraddha Pasi), Shyam Raat Seher (Arunima Sharma, Best Cinematography National Award and PIFF), Echoes of Silence (Reema Borah, National Award Best Music), Punah (Ganga Mukhi), Hazy Grey Skies (Priya Belliappa), Rain Drops on a Tin Roof (Neelanjana Borthakur), The Solitary Sandpiper (Ajita Suchitraveera), Shankarnama (Tanushree Das/Saurabh Shankar) and so on.

These films, still in 35mm format, will be screened with a package of 5 to 8 films daily at 2.00 p. m. from 22nd to 30th November at Maquinez Palance-II in the main IFFI complex.
Report by Rajendra Joshi