The 49th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) concluded in Goa. The closing ceremony was held at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Taleigaon, near Panaji. The closing film is Sealed Lips from Germany, while the opening film was The Aspern Papers.
Master writer Salim Khan was honoured with the IFFI special award for his lifetime contribution to cinema at the closing ceremony. 12 films including two from India were nominated for this year’s ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal.
222 movies from 67 countries were screened at the nine-day event. 26 feature films and 21 non-feature films were screened in the Indian Panorama section. While Israel was the focus country, Jharkhand was the focus state this year. This is for the first time that any state was made focus state at IFFI.
Veteran Israeli filmmaker Dan Wolman was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony. Another new section at IFFI this year was the screening of six Indian sports biopics as an extension of the Khelo India initiative. In the International competition section, 15 movies were screened, out of which 3 were Indian.
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