54th International Film Festival to Start in Goa Today

Goa: The 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be inaugurated in Goa on Monday, November 20.

The festival will open with an international screening of film “Catching Dust”, by award-winning British filmmaker Stuart Gatt.

During this 9-day film festival, more than 270 films will be screened at four venues. They will include premiers of 18 international, 62 Asia and 89 Indian movies.

A total of 2,926 entries from 105 countries were received, which is three times the international submissions last year. Hollywood veteran Michael Douglas, known for movies like The Sentinel, The American President and Disclosure, will be honoured with the prestigious Satyajit Ray Excellence in Film Lifetime Award at the IFFI.

A total of 32 entries have been received in 10 languages from 15 OTT platforms for Best Web Series (OTT) Award. Fifteen feature films (12 international and 3 Indian) will compete for the coveted Golden Peacock Award.

Seven international films and three Indian films that reflect the ideals of UNESCO will be featured in the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal Award session during the festival.

Actors Madhuri Dixit, Shahid Kapoor, Shriya Saran, Nushrat Bharucha, Pankaj Tripathi and composer-musician Shantanu Moitra; and singers Shreya Ghoshal and Sukhwinder Singh will perform at the opening ceremony.

From Hollywood star Catherine Zeta Jones to Bollywood heartthrobs Salman Khan, Vidya Balan, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal, Siddharth Malhotra, Aditi Rao Hydari and music directors AR Rahman and Amit Trivedi will attend the event.