India International Film festival – IFFI-losing its charm to KIFF and IFFK?

During the 2024 Kolkata International Film festival (KIFF) I met a Brazilian filmmaker Leo Bello, whose film, Notary of Souls, was an entry in the competition section and later to be screened in the International film festival of Kerala (IFFK) at Thiruvananthapuram. Mr Leo had entered his films in competition section of both KIFF and International Film Festival of Kerala. The first acceptance call came from Kolkata and hence the film is in the competition section at KIFF. But he was keen that the film is shown later at International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). He indeed was travelling from Kolkata to Thiruvananthapuram to attend the screening. Though the International Film festival of India (IFFI) is in Goa, the prime tourist destination of India, the Brazilian filmmaker showed no regret in not sending the film to India International Film Festival (IFFI) in November.

For Leo, it appeared that both KIFF and IFFK are the prime festivals of India.

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Meanwhile, the organisers of IFFI claimed in 2024, “Global participation and film screenings this year stood at 1,676 submissions from 101 countries, a testament to the festival’s growing international standing. IFFI 2024 will present over 180 international films from 81 countries, including 15 world premieres, 3 international premieres, 40 Asian premieres and 106 Indian premiers. As these are a selection of celebrated titles and award-winning films from the global circuit, this year’s festival is set to leave a lasting impact on audiences.”

IFFI also claims one of the World’s 14 biggest and most prestigious ‘International Competition Feature Film Festivals’ that is accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers’ Association (FIAPF), the international body governing lm festivals globally. International Film Festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice are such other reputed festivals, accredited by FIAPF under this category. However, with blatant political propaganda films like Kashmir files and Kerala story in its competition and Indian Panorama sections and increasingly taking over the so called “ Bollywood” film personalities of the Goa festival it appears the standing of the IFFK is going down. There are unconfirmed reports that the international rating of IFFI is under cloud, especially after the outburst against Kashmir Files, film in the competition by the then jury Chairman, a Jewish filmmaker based in Paris, Naved Lapid in 2022.

IFFI began in 1952, as Asia’s first International film festival with a big bang, like most of Nehruvian initiatives of the era, but took 23 years to be an annual event in 1975. On 24 January 1952, the young nation saw the first international film festival being flagged off by the then Information and Broadcasting Minister RR Diwakar at Mumbai’s Empire theatre with a message from the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who wished the festival would help “ build good taste” in India cinema. “The Festival and the Exhibition will bring new ideas from other countries. I hope that we shall profit from these ideas,” noted Nehru in his message to the inaugural of the festival.

IFFI had a modest start with 12 countries participating with 40 feature films and 100 short films. As India was one of the largest films producing countries with a huge population in 1952, both the US and then Soviet Union participated in the festival with a huge delegation. Frank Capra, the eminent Hollywood filmmaker led the US delegation and a Minister in the Soviet government came with a huge team of film people. The festival travelled from the then Bombay to Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi where Nehru addressed the gathering in the capital city and the President honoured the delegations with an official dinner. In Chennai there was a huge parade of the Indian and international film people, which attracted huge crowds. Some of the films screened at the festival included the Italian classics, Bicycle Thieves and Miracle in Milan of Vittoria De Sica and Roberto Rosellini’s Rome Open City.The Indian films included Raj Kapoor’s Awara.

It took almost ten years for the 2nd edition of IFFI in 1961, as the country was yet to establish its film institutions to conduct such festivals. In 1965, with the third edition, the IFFI became a competitive festival and continued the same in 1969 and it was Ms Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister who made the festival an annual event in 1975 in Delhi. By inviting the film maestros to IFFI in 1977, Mrs. Gandhi, a lifelong connoisseur of meaningful films, ensured that IFFI has a special place among such events in the world. The film maestros Ms Gandhi invited included Akira Kurosawa from Japan, Michelangelo Antonioni from Italy and Elia Kazan the Greek-USA filmmaker. A photo of Kurosawa and Antonioni visiting the Taj Mahal at Agra along with Satyajit Ray, is viral even today on online platforms.

From 1975 upto 2004, IFFI maintained its touring nature, travelling to each of the major filmmaking centers of India every alternate year from New Delhi until it got rooted at Goa in 2004. Though Goa is a tourist destination with no particular place in the film map of India, the decision makers thought they can develop Goa just as Cannes of France which is also a tourist destination. However, these decision makers oversaw the fact that each film festival is also known for its local participation apart from delegate numbers. That way over the years, IFFI has now been reduced to an official sarkari festival in sharp contrast to the international film festivals at Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram, both boasting of huge people participation. KIFF which is in its 30 th year has a huge patronage of serious film audience from the city of Bengal maestros, Ray , Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, which one witnessed at 2024 KIFF when the restored Indian classics were shown to a full house at 11 am. KIFF is also a rare picture of well
behaved cineastes of all ages, and families flocking together to update their film sense with the global and national cinemas of the year.

IFFK showcases itself as the rare film festivals with participation of over 10,000 delegates, though most are students from the State. But it is a fact that no other regional international film festivals in Mumbai, Pune and Jaipur or Bangalore have such a committed local audience to boast off. It is a fact that just as the Brazilian filmmaker, the preference of filmmakers across the globe is towards festivals like that of KIFF and IFFK, as both have committed audience participation, not just the impressive official ceremonies. The big three international film festivals of the world, Cannes, Berlin and Venice –the oldest are known for their huge local audience participation apart from the presence of the film connoisseurs across the world. And that explains why the ratings of IFFI at Goa are going down over the years.

Until recently the IFFI had had high-level participation from the Central government with the Information and Broadcasting Minister being the main host of the festival. During 2024 it was the Secretary of the Ministry who was the host it appears and increasingly it is taken over the industry and its glamour and not the Indian filmmakers who are pride of place among the global filmmakers. One does find Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Kasaravally or Gautam Ghose , who are considered as Indian living legends today at IFFI but are seen at KIFF or IFFK.

“The 1960s thus laid the foundation of for a government-supported serious cinema (or the art film) which continued to develop through the 1970s,” noted India’s original film writer Chidandanda Das Gupta in his last book “Seeing is believing” in 2006 and he went on to add “The IFFI,NFDC, President’s awards, NFAI, increasingly found their raison d’être coming to question.”

It is no longer in question but the present government at the centre has put an end to the Nehruvian institutions in films with the merger of Directorate of film festivals, Films Division, Children’s film society and even National film Archive with the National Film Development Corporation, whose mandate is now is an event management company for the Central government . If there are questions about IFFI and its global rating these days, it is quite understandable given the predicament in which it is being managed nowadays by civil servants who have no orientation about conducting such international film festivals.

(V K Cherian is an author of books-Celluloid to Digital: India’s Film Society movement and Noon films and Magical renaissance in Malayalam cinema and in the jury of KIFF 2024)

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