The 56th International Film Festival of India has selected Rajkumar Periyasamy’s Tamil war drama Amaran, starring Sivakarthikeyan, as the opening feature film for this year’s Indian Panorama.
The lineup includes 25 feature films, 20 non-feature films, and five streaming series for Best Web Series.
‘Amaran’ leads a diverse selection of 516 contemporary Indian feature films, including five mainstream film titles. The 12-member feature film jury, chaired by actor, filmmaker and producer Raja Bundela, selected films representing India’s multiple linguistic and regional film traditions.
The complete lineup of 20 feature films in the main section includes Malayalam ‘Sarkeet’, ‘Amaran’ directed by Tamal KV, Brazilian ‘Vimukt’ directed by Jitank Singh Gurjal, Hindi ‘The Bengal Files’ directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, Hindi ‘Tanvi The Great’ directed by Anupam Kher, Badiga ‘Vanya’ in Kannada directed by Devendra, ‘White Snow’ in Urdu by Praveen Molchale, ‘Bhaimon Da’ in Assamese by Sasanka Sameer, ‘Gondar’ in Marathi by Santosh Davakar and ‘Sue From So’ in Kannada by JP Tuminad.
The selection also includes Soukarya Ghosal’s Bengali ‘Pokkirajel Dim’, Shivadwaj Shetty’s Tulu ‘Imbu’, Purushottam Lele’s Marathi ‘Dursha Asudrusha’, Naorem Dinesh Singh’s Manipuri ‘Oitalay’, Reshmi Mitra’s Bengali ‘Balbabu’ and Raju. Chandra’s Tamil ‘Pirantanaru Vajuthukal’, Vishal Patnaik’s Oriya ‘Mariput Melodies’, Paresh Mokashi’s Marathi ‘Mukham Post Bombirwadi’, Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar’s Hindi ‘Ground Zero’ and Jigar Nagda’s Rajasthani ‘Mountain Whisper’.
The mainstream films section will screen Laxman Utekar’s Hindi ‘Chaava’, Shivraj Waichal’s Marathi ‘Aata Thambaicha Naai’, Tarun Morthy’s Malayalam ‘Tudharm’, Devankar Borgohain’s Assamese ‘Sikar’ and Anil Ravipudi’s Telugu ‘Sankrantiki’. Vasthunnam. ”
The jury also nominated five films for the Best Debut Director award at the Indian Feature Film Awards: Nepali ‘The Shape of Momo’ by Triveni Rai, Bengali ‘Binodhini Ekti Natil Upahyan’ by Ram Kamal Mukherjee, Hindi ‘Kesari Chapter 2’ by Karan Singh Tyagi, Malayalam ‘AR M’ by Jitin Lal and Yadu. Vamsee’s Telugu “Crawling Committee”.
For non-feature films, a jury led by cinematographer and director Dharam Gulati selected 20 titles from 550 entries. Kamlesh K. Mishra’s Hindi documentary ‘Kakoli’ will open the non-feature film.
The complete non-featured selection includes Prakash Karippa K’s Kodava ‘Ummatath – Rhythms of Kodava’, Jairam Bhaskar Waghmode’s Marathi ‘The Untold Agony’, EV Ganeshbabu’s Tamil ‘Aanirai’, Sunny Hinduja, Shinjini Raval’s Hindi ‘That’s A Wrap’, Kapil. Tanwar’s Hindi “RU BA RU”, Suraj Kumar’s Hindi “Piplantri.
The selection also includes Rohit More’s Hindi, Marathi and Tamil ‘Ta Dom’, Samten Bhutia’s Sikkimese ‘Shangri-La’, Surya Balakrishnan’s Hindi ‘Deepa Didi’, Abhijeet Arvind Dalvi’s Marathi ‘Hamsafar’, Sabita Sharma Nagar and Rajesh Amrohi’s Hindi. “Vice Chancellor of Chalk University – Padmabhushan Amrit Lal Nagar”, Isha Pungariya’s English, Marathi “Oslo – Tail of Promise”, Born Tokchom’s Manipuri “Battlefield”, Kamlesh K. Mishra’s Hindi “Kakori”, Namrata Dutta’s Assamese “Patralekha”, Rajdeep Chaudhary’s English “Chalo Indian with Eric” Ji” and Ulka Mayur’s Marathi version of “Where the Heart Is.”
The festival has announced the nominations for the Best Web Series award. The jury, chaired by film director and producer Bharatbala Ganapathy, selected five series from major streaming platforms.
Prime Video has been nominated in three categories for Anand Tiwari’s ‘Bandish Bandit’ Season 2, Avinash Arun Dhaware’s ‘Paatal Lok’ Season 2 and Brahma’s ‘Sujar – Whirlpool’ Season 2. Netflix received one nomination for director Vikramaditya Motwane’s “Black Warrant,” while Amazon MX Player’s “Mitti – Directed by Ek Nai Pehchaan” was nominated. Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Kumar Dwivedi round out the candidates.
The 56th Indian International Film Festival will be held in Goa from November 20th to 28th.
