IFFI set to get bigger in golden jubilee edition

The 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held from November 20 to 28 in Goa, and will feature around 250 films from 76 countries.

In a first, the Golden Jubilee edition of IFFI will screen films with audio description for the visual impaired.

A selection of Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Amitabh Bachchan's films will also be showcased.

"Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Shri. Amitabh Bachchan's outstanding contribution to Cinema will be honoured and celebrated through a package of his impactful and entertaining films in the 50th edition," said Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar, while announcing the 2019 edition of the annual film gala.

He added that Indian Panorama this year has 26 feature films and 15 non-feature films.

To mark the festival's golden jubilee year, 12 prominent films in different languages that have completed 50 years in 2019 will also be screened.

Apart from a minehouse of the latest art cinema gems from all across the world, several new-age Bollywood mainstream films will be screened at the festival, too. These include "Uri: The Surgical Strike", "Gully Boy", "Super 30" and "Badhai Hoa.

This year, the Feature Film Jury is headed by acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter Priyadarshan. The Jury has chosen Abhishek Shah's Gujarati film "Hellaro" as the opening film of Indian Panorama.

Ashish Pandey's "Nooreh" has been selected as opening film in the Non-Feature Film category of Indian Panorama by the Non-Feature Jury headed by well-known documentary filmmaker Rajendra Janglay .

In all, over 10,000 people are expected to participate in the golden jubilee edition of IFFI.

( With inputs from IANS )