The long wait is finally over. The 28th Kolkata International Film Festival 2022 starts today. CM Mamata Banerjee performed the inaugural ceremony at Netaji Indoor Stadium today at 4 p.m. The international film festival will be held for the next seven days. It is the day when the entire city looks forward to celebrating this event with zeal.
Inauguration of KIFF 2022
The Kolkata International Film Festival will take place from December 15th to December 22nd. CM Mamata Banerjee launched KIFF today at 4 p.m. at Netaji Indoor Stadium. Other Bollywood actors, in addition to those from the Bengali film industry, attended the event. The event’s principal guests included new Governor C.V. Ananda Bose and Kolkata’s ‘Jamai Babu’ Amitabh Bachhan. Other noteworthy guests included Sharukh Khan and Sourav Ganguly. Other notable guests included Mahesh Bhatt, Shatrugan Sinha, Jaya Bacchan, Rani Mukherjee, Kumar Sanu, and Arijit Singh.
The annual Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture has been a vital element of the KIFF since its inception. this year the lecture will be delivered by renowned director Sudhir Mishra, recognised for his genre of realistic films. This year’s topic was announced to be ‘Understanding cinema in changing times of OTT’. The film festival’s most recent edition took place between April 25 and May 1, 2022. Due to restrictions enforced during the Covid-29 outbreak, the yearly event was not held in physical mode back in 2020 and 2021.
Number of films that will be shown
The film festival will feature five competition categories: International Competition Innovation in Moving Images, Competition on Indian Languages, Asian Select (NETPAC Award), National Competition on Documentary, and National Competition on Short Fiction. Aroop Biswas, the state minister for sports and youth affairs, revealed the festival’s logo during a press conference where he also announced that 183 films from 42 nations, including 52 shorts and documentaries, will be exhibited for movie buffs over the course of eight days in 10 locations.
Things to know about KIFF 2022
Number of films that will be shown
The film festival will feature five competition categories: International Competition Innovation in Moving Images, Competition on Indian Languages, Asian Select (NETPAC Award), National Competition on Documentary, and National Competition on Short Fiction. Aroop Biswas, the state minister for sports and youth affairs, revealed the festival’s logo during a press conference where he also announced that 183 films from 42 nations, including 52 shorts and documentaries, will be exhibited for movie buffs over the course of eight days in 10 locations.
Places where international film festivals will run
Rabindra Sadan, Shishir Mancha, Radha Studio, Ravindra ukarkura Bhavan (Salt Lake), and Nazrul Manch will all be exhibiting national and international films. This year’s theme for KIFF is “Bishwa Mele Chobir Malay” (Meet the World, at the World of Cinema ). This year’s greatest film to be screened is ‘Abhimman’ directed by Hrishikesh Mukhopadhyay starring Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan. The film was released in 1973. From 5 p.m., the film will be shown at Netaji Indoor Stadium. The Bachchan retrospective will also feature Deewar and Kala Patthar.
Centenary Tribute
The films of Hrishikesh Mukhopadhyay, Bharati Deb, Dilip Kumar, Asit Sen, K Asif, Ali Akhbar Kha, and Pulo Pauslo will be honoured at the 28th Film Festival. Joe lu Gadar and Tarun Mazumdar will be honoured in particular. Some of their films will be presented during KIFF.
Honourable Mention
Eminent individuals such as Tarun Majumdar, veteran actor Pradip Mukherjee, classical musician Shivkumar Sharma, and American star Angela Lansbury, who died in 2022, will be honoured at the 28th KIFF.
Tribute to Big B
As Amitabh Bacchan celebrated his 80th birthday this year, to pay tribute to Big B eight of his films will be screened at KIFF. Apart from this, some sports films were selected including MS Dhoni, Chak De India, Mary Kom, 83, and Bhag Milka Bhag.
End of ceremony
The concluding ceremony will take place on December 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Rabindra Sadan.
