‘Hadinelentu’ to be opening feature film of Indian Panorama at 53rd IFFI

New Delhi, October 22, 2022

The Indian Panorama, the flagship component of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), today announced the selection of 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films.

Kannada film "Hadinelentu", directed by Prithvi Konanur, will be the opening Indian feature film and the English film "The Show Must Go On" in the Non-feature film section in the Panorama at the 53rd IFFI to be held in Goa from November 20-28.

The aim of the Indian Panorama, organized by the National Film Development Corporation and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, is to select feature and non-feature films of cinematic, thematic and aesthetic excellence in accordance with the conditions and procedures in the set regulations.

The selection of the Indian Panorama is made by eminent personalities from the world of cinema from across India comprising a total of 12 jury members for feature films and six jury members for non-feature films led by the respective chairpersons. Exercising their individual expertise, the eminent jury panels contribute evenly to the consensus that leads to the selection of Indian Panorama films of respective categories.

The Feature Film Jury, comprising twelve members, was headed by acclaimed director and editor, chairperson Vinod Ganatra.

The Feature Jury is constituted of the following members who individually represent various acclaimed films, and film-related professions, whereas collectively representing the diverse Indian film fraternity.

They are A Karthik Raja, Cinematographer; Ananda Jyothi, Musician, Writer and Filmmaker; Dr Anuradha Singh; Filmmaker and Editor; Ashok Kashyap, Producer, Director and Cinematographer; Enumula Premraj, Director and Screenwriter; Geeta M Gurappa, Sound Engineer; Imo Singh, Producer, Director and Writer; Jugal Debata; Producer, Director and Cinematographer; Sailesh Dave; Producer; Shibu G Sushelan, Producer; V N Aditya; Producer, Director and Screenwriter; Vishnu Sharma, Author and Film Critic.

A package of 25 feature films has been selected to be screened in the Indian Panorama section from a broad spectrum of 354 qualifying contemporary Indian feature films. These include Mahananda (Bengali) directed by Arindam Sil, Three of Us (Hindi) directed by Avinash Arun Dhaware; The Storyteller (Hindi) directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Dhabari Quruvi (Irula) directed by Priyanandanan, Hadinelentu (Kannada) directed by Prithvi Konanur, Naanu Kusuma (Kannada) directed by Krishna Gowda, Lotus Blooms (Maithili) directed by Pratik Sharma, Ariyippu (Malayalam) directed by Mahesh Narayanan, Saudi Vellakka CC.225/2009 (Malayalam) directed by Tharun Moorthy, Frame (Marathi) directed by Vikram Patwardhan, Kida (Tamil) directed by RA. Venkat and Jai Bhim (Tamil) directed by Tha. Se. Gnanavel.

The mainstream cinema section includes The Kashmir Files (Hindi, dir. Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri), RRR (Roudram Ranam Rudhiram) (Telugu, dir. S S Rajamouli and Tonic (Bengali) by Avijit Sen.

The Non-Feature Film Jury, comprising six members, was headed by acclaimed filmmaker, producer, writer and National Film Award winner, Oinam Doren.

A package of 20 Non-Feature films has been selected to be screened in the Indian Panorama section at 53rd IFFI from a broad spectrum of qualifying 242 contemporary Indian non-feature films. The package of non-feature films exemplifies the capacity of emerging and established filmmakers to document, investigate, entertain and also reflect contemporary Indian values, an official press release said.

The Indian Panorama was introduced in 1978 as part of the IFFI umbrella to promote Indian films along with India's rich culture and heritage with the help of cinematic art. Since its inception, the Indian Panorama has been completely devoted to showcasing the best Indian films of the year. The selected films for the Indian Panorama section, with an aim for the promotion of film art, will also be screened for non-profit screening in international film festivals in India and abroad, Indian Film Weeks held under Bilateral Cultural Exchange Programmes and Specialized Indian Film Festivals outside cultural exchange protocols, and special Indian Panorama festivals in India.

NNN