The Indian Film Festival of Bhubaneswar (IFFB) started at GKCM Odissi Research Centre from Thursday. The four-day long festival has been organised by Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB), one of the few film societies in the country.
The Indian Film Festival of Bhubaneswar (IFFB) started at GKCM Odissi Research Centre from Thursday. The four-day long festival has been organised by Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB), one of the few film societies in the country. On the opening day, the festival paid tribute to ace Odia filmmaker and 8-time national award winner Late Manmohan Mahapatra, who recently passed away, by screening his last film Bhija Matira Swarga that won big in the State Odia Film Awards 2019.
Acclaimed films from across the subcontinent have been screened in the festival. As per the organisers, the focus is to showcase unseen stories from across the regions to the viewers, bring important topics to the table in a captivating way that also sparks conversation and discussion, and to put human faces on global issues that might otherwise seem unrelatable for the sake of building bridges of empathy and compassion. The festival paid homage to the auteur Mrinal Sen and three of his films - Bhuvan Shome, Akaler Sandhaane and Khandhar, were screened here. Senior filmmaker Gautam Ghosh’s latest film Raahgir was also screened as the closing film of the event.Besides, there was conversations with filmmakers. The festival has been organised with the support of India Foundation of the Arts (IFA), National Film Archives of India (NFAI) and Kerala Chalachitra Academy.