The second edition of the Nitte International Film Festival (NIFF), which is reportedly Mangaluru’s only international film festival, kickstarted on Monday at the Bharath Cinemas in Bharath Mall. Several eminent film personalities from across the country will attend the 4-day festival which aims to showcase critically acclaimed cinema and create a platform for filmmakers and viewers to interact.
This year, the festival was inaugurated by theatre person M Sadananda Suvarna, known for producing Ghatashraddha, a 1977 film based on veteran Kannada writer UR Ananthamurthy. The festival kicked off at 10:00 am on Monday and will continue until Thursday (19th April).
The second edition of the festival will see 60 film screenings from different languages including Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Odia, Tamil, Chinese, Czech and French. The festival is open to public and does not have an entry fee. 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 organised by Nitte Institute of Communication, a deemed university.
“We have around 40 - 45 directors and other prominent members of the film fraternity coming to Mangaluru to attend the festival. The idea is to start a conversation between filmmakers and audiences and add vibrancy to the culture of this small town,” says Raviraj, principal of Nittee.
The line-up for this year includes several 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).
The screenings will be followed by an interactive session with the filmmaker concerned. There will also be longer discussions, including a session with RS Prasanna on his film Shubh Mangal Savdhan, a session on Media, Politics and Society with Ramesh Sharma and N Manu Chakravarthy, and a panel discussion on Caste and Cinema. There will also be a masterclass on cinematography by National Award winning veteran cinematographer GS Bhaskar. Registrations are open for the masterclass, and will be charged at ₹ 250 per head.
“We strongly believe that good cinema has potential to change the society for the better. And we hope to achieve this in Mangaluru with the film festival,” Raviraj added.
The schedule of film screenings are put up on the Facebook page of NIFF. Interested persons can also contact the festival co-ordinators.