53rd International Film Festival of India opens in Goa on Nov 20

Come November 20, Sunday, the 53rd edition of International Film Festival of India, is all set to open with a colourful ceremony at Goa’s Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium.

The film buffs in the country and from abroad will savour 280 movies from 79 countries across the world bringing diverse emotions, cultures, aspirations and struggles on the screen.

Following are the highlights of the festival:

• “Alma and Oskar”, the Austrian film, directed by Dieter Berner, will open the festival
• The closing cinema will be “Perfect Number”, a Polish film directed by Krzysztof Zanussi
• The mid-fest film will be “Fixation”, a 2022 movie set in Germany, Canada and US and directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan
• From India there will be 25 feature films and 19 non-feature films which will be showcased in the Indian Panorama
• There will be a special section dedicated to Asha Parekh, winner of 52nd Dadasaheb Phalke Award showing three of her films – “Teesri Manzil”, “Do Badan” and “Kati Patang”
• A specially curated package of five feature and non-feature films will celebrate completion of 50 years of Manipuri cinema
• National Film Archives of India will screen in “Indian Restored Classics” section Sohrab Modi’s 1957 costume drama “Nausherwan-E-Adil”, Ramesh Maheshwary’s 1969 Punjabi film “Nanak Nam Jahaz Hai”, K Vishwanath’s 1980 Telugu musical drama “Sankarabharnam” and two Satyajit Ray classics, the 1977 period drama “Shatranj Ke Khiladi” and the 1989 social, “Ganashatru”

• Carlos Saura will be conferred the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award
• The spotlight country this year is France and 8 films will be shown under Country Focus package
• Throughout Goa caravans will be deployed to screen movies
• There will be open air beach screening too
• Gala premiers of Hindi films like Paresh Rawal’s “The Storyteller”, Ajay Devgn and Tabu’s “Drishyam 2”, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon’s “Bhediya” and Yami Gautam’s “Lost” will held