The Festival Director, Shri Senthil Rajan and the CEO, ESG, Shri Ameya Abhyankar at the Mid Fest Press Conference, during the 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2016), in Panaji, Goa on November 24, 2016.
The festival director M. Senthil Rajan and CEO of ESG Ameya Abhyankar addressed the media exclusively for a midweek update, in the on-going 47th IFFI Goa 2016, about the things that happened in first week and what was in store for them in second week. The session was moderated by Manish Desai (PIB).
M. Centhil Rajan opened the session by saying, “We have all crossed the first half of IFFI Goa 2016 with a very good overall response. Our selection of the opening Polish film Andrzej Wajda’s Afterimage and the inauguration ceremony was highly appreciated. Thankfully no criticism came forth about this. The Centenary Award bestowed on the globally renowned singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam was also well received including the tribute “I Am The Woman” we paid to the film industry divas from 50’s to 90’s of bygone millennium.”
M. Centhil Rajan further added, “Next in line was the opening ceremony of the Indian Panorama section by Chief Guest Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu (Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information & Broadcasting) who really admired the package of the feature as well as the non-feature film section and commended both the section’s jury members for their highly transparent selection process.Then the Indian Panorama this year also included mainstream’s hugely successful films like Sultan, Airlift, Bahubali and Allama. Our only regret is that we could not give repeat screenings to most of the Indian Panorama films especially because of the cut on the number of days this year. Then we also had the honour of felicitating many International and Indian filmmakers and their film’s cast as well, who had come for the presentation ceremony. The Red Carpet events also went off well with many renowned celebrities walking on it. We even had many additional midnight screenings. Besides we had many “In Conversation”, “Workshops” and “Master Classes” sessions which really went off well and a huge round of applause also went to NFDC’s 4 days of Film Bazaar’s session.”
M. Centhil Rajan continued by saying, “Most of the films of International Competition and other sections including the Korean Package saw a huge turnout. Now we are looking forward for the huge response for the 2nd week as well. In which the main attraction will be the screening of midweek film Elia K. Schneider’s Tamara in presence of its entire cast and crew. Tamara is the story of a man’s struggle to become the woman that he truly is. The closing ceremony will also be held in the same dignified way as the opening ceremony, in which not only the competition section’s films will be awarded but also the Lifetime Achievement Award will be bestowed on the international persona director Im Kwon Taek. Then we also look forward to the closing film namely Kim Jee-Woon’s The Age of Shadows, which is a film based in 1920’s period, when Korea had fallen under Japanese rule. So now IFFI Goa is looking forward for the Grand Golden Jubilee Celebrations to be Held in 2019.”
On a concluding note the CEO of Entertainment Society of Goa enlightened about this year’s infrastructure and accreditation process, “We had to make a lot of changes in the ESG complex and hence a lot of facilities earlier offered to the media and the delegates had to be shifted within the venue like the media centre and the press briefing room to name just two. Even the online accreditation has come in for a lot of flak. But it will be rectified next year.”
