The 36th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) - 2005 came to a close here today with the screening of Belgium-France film ‘L’Enfant’, directed by Jean Pierre & Luc Dardene. Iranian film ‘Iron Island’, directed by Mr. Mohammad Rasoulof bagged the best film award and won the Golden Peacock and a cash prize of Rs.Ten lakhs for originality, deep thoughtful narration, powerful cinematic expression and great creative strength. The most promising Director award went to Directors Ms. Vera Eugina Fogwill and Mr. Martin Desalvo for the Argentinean film ‘Kept & Dreamless (Las Mantenidas Sin Suenos) with Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs. Five lakhs for unveiling of the feminine universe with sensitivity and humour in the context of the global marginalization of people. Film Director Mr. Tom Hooper won the Special Jury Award for the South African film ‘Red Dust’ with Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs. Five lakhs for the efficient use of the cinematic language by the director, who in his first film, has dealt with great understanding the issue of human rights.

The five-member jury headed by the Latin American film maker Mr. Miguel Littin included Mr. Alain Corneau (France), Mr. Saeed Mirza (India), Mr. Faramarz Gharibian (Iran) and Ms. Sabine Derflinger (Austria) as members. .

Appreciating the role of film world and film personalities during IFFI – 05, Shri Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, expressed the hope that IFFI in Goa would go from strength to strength and achieve its due place. Director, DFF, Shri Afzal Amanullah thanked the Goa Government and public for their tremendous response.

Noted film star Shri Mithun Chakraborty who was Guest of Honour at the closing ceremony said that he always considered Goa as the most suitable place to hold IFFI.

Earlier, the music of Hindi film ‘Zinda’ was released as part of the function. The lead actor of the film Sanjay Dutt and director Sanjay Gupta were present. A brief music and dance programme preceded the presentation of awards.

The 11-day extravaganza, which began on 24th November, 2005 with the screening of Brazilian film ‘Olga’, directed by Jayme Monjardim, showed over 300 screenings of 182 films from 35 countries. The Competition Section this year included films from Africa and Latin America, besides Asia. ‘The Indian Panorama’, and ‘Retrospectives’ of various countries including Italy, Poland, Africa, Germany, Portugal, Canada, Egypt, Taiwan and Australia were also screened. A Retrospective of films of legendary director Hrishikesh Mukherjee was also screened.

A salient feature of the Festival was all India Premier of several films including ‘Apaharan’ directed by Prakash Jha, ‘Blue Umbrella’ directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, ‘Deewana Huye Paagal’ director Vikram Bhatt, ‘Dubai Return’ directed by Aditya Bhattacharya and ‘Parzania’ directed by Rahul Dholakia. The Festival paid special tributes to Ismail Merchant, Sunil Dutt and Gemini Ganesh who passed away this year. Besides movie watching, the delegates, tourist and local people enjoyed the festivities with a series of other programmes.

Report by Rajendra Joshi.



Pics: The Chief Minister of Goa Shri Narayan Rane giving away the Golden Peacock Award for the Best film to the representative of the Director of the film “Iron Island” Mr. Mohammad Rasoulof, during the closing ceremony of the 36th International Film Festival of India – 2005 in Panaji, Goa on December 4, 2005.

Pic: The film star Mithun Chakraborty giving away the Silver Peacock (Special Jury Award) for the South African film “Red Dust” to the representative of the Director Mr. Tom Hooper during the closing ceremony of the 36th International Film Festival of India – 2005 in Panaji, Goa on December 4, 2005