Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Arrangements for film festival complete

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM March 25. A unique audience award of Rs. 1 lakh for the best film is one of the highlights of the Seventh International Film Festival of Kerala 2002 which begins here on March 29, the Chalachitra Academy chairman, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, has said.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan, academy secretary, and the festival general convenor, K.V.Mohan Kumar, and the convenor, Bina Paul, told reporters here this evening that the delegates would select the best film from the competitive section on the last day.

The delegates will cast their vote using a novel software. A standby arrangement has been made to meet any exigencies. The best director and producer will get Rs. 5 lakhs each.

The special jury award of Rs. 3 lakhs is for excellence in any discipline.

The second best film will get Rs. 2 lakhs.

"As many as 4,000 persons have already registered their names as delegates. This is likely to touch 5,000 once the festival begins.

The academy introduced registration fees for the first time and the decision has been widely accepted,'' he said.

Preparations have all been completed and almost 99 per cent of the film prints have arrived. `Baran,' a love story set against the backdrop of strife-torn Afghanistan, is the inaugural film. The 86-year-old actress, Aranmula Ponnamma, will inaugurate the festival at a function on March 29.

As many as 12 pictures produced in 2001 have been included in the competition section. Eleven films of the Finnish director, Aki Kaurismaki, including `

The match factory girl,' `Drifting clouds,' and `Take care of your scarf,' seven films of the U.S. director, Orson Welles, including `Citizen Kane', four films in the Contemporary Indian Cinema, five each in new the Malayalam cinema category and the French package are some of the films scheduled to be shown at the festival.

In addition, there are four films in the Italian package, 23 short films, 10 documentaries and 48 films will be shown in the World Cinema section said.

In addition to the financial assistance provided by the Government, the festival organisers have managed to get sponsorship worth Rs. 15 lakhs. A host of international film celebrities are expected to attend the festival. The Hungarian director, Marta Meszaros, is heading the international jury.

The other members are the German director, Reinhard Hauff, the Japanese director, Kohei Oguri, the Sri Lankan Film Board chairman, Tissa Abeysekara ,and the Assamese filmmaker, Santwana Bordoloi.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan rejected any controversy over the selection of films.Regarding the selection of the director, Priyadarsan, to head the State film awards jury, he said that the academy had only made some proposals and the Government made the final selection.Asked whether he approved of having a commercial director like Priyadarsan to head the jury, he said only the films could be classified as art and commercial, not filmmakers. It was not practical to keep off filmmakers from the academy panels. The festival offered a chance for the directors to show their films. Moreover, the foreign films scheduled to be shown at the festival will prove to be a touchstone for the Malayalam filmmakers, he said.

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