Mangaluru, Apr 14: The second Nitte International Film Festival, presented by Nitte (Deemed-to-be) University, will bring together film viewers and film makers for a four-day film festival from April 16-19 at Bharath Cinemas in Bharath Mall.
The festival aims to showcase critically acclaimed cinema from across India and the world to the public in Mangaluru, while providing a platform for film-makers and film-viewers to have a conversation. All film-screenings and discussions at the festival are free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis. The schedule is available on NIFF’s facebook page.
The festival will kick off on April 16 at 10:00 a.m. with the inauguration by renowned film-maker and theatre person M. Sadananda Suvarna. NIFF will open with the National Film Award winning Hindi film Mukti Bhawan (2016, Special Jury Award). The line-up for this year includes several other National Film Award winners, such as Village Rockstars (Best Film, Best Editing), Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (Best Malayalam film, Best Original Screenplay), Mayurakshi (Best Bengali Film), Dhh (Best Gujarati Film) and To Let (Best Tamil Film).
Recognising the lacuna in Mangaluru’s arts and culture landscape for a major film festival, NIFF was launched in 2017 as a student-run festival organized by Nitte Institute of Communication. For its second edition, NIFF is all set to build on its success from last year when the maiden film festival witnessed an enthusiastic crowd and packed theatres.
This year, about 60 films will be screened from different languages including Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Odia, Tamil, Chinese, Czech and French. Three screens at Bharath Cinemas will be dedicated to festival films on all four days.
NIFF 2018 also promises to be a treat for children, showcasing several children’s films to encourage an early exposure to good cinema. The lineup includes Heidi, a German-language film presented in association with the Swiss Embassy, as well as award-winning Indian films such as Dhh (Gujarati), Pipsi (Marathi), Half Ticket (Marathi) and Maza Bhirbhira (Marathi).
The festival will host Raj B Shetty (Director, Ondu Motteya Kathe), Sanal Kumar Sasidharan (Director, S Durga), Hemanth Rao (Director, Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu), R S Prasanna (Director, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan) among many other film makers.
There will be an interactive session with each filmmaker after the screening of their film. There will also be longer discussions including a session with R S Prasanna on his film Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, a session on Media, Politics and Society with Ramesh Sharma and N Manu Chakravarthy, and a panel discussion on Caste and Cinema.
Aspiring film-makers have more to look forward to. There will be a masterclass on cinematography by national-award winning veteran cinematographer G S Bhaskar. Registrations are open, and will be charged at ₹ 250 per head. Interested people can contact the festival coordinators.
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