IFFI to open with `The Warlords`

Panaji, Nov 19: `The Warlords` directed by renowned HongKong film-maker Peter Chan, will open the 39th edition of the International Film Festival of India beginning here from November 22.The Iranian film "The Song of The Sparrows" directed by acclaimed Majid Majidi will be the closing film of the festival," Director of Film Festivals S M Khan said here.

The ten-day festival will be held at two venues—Kala Academy and Entertainment Society of Goa Complex. "Films from Asia, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa will compete for the IFFI awards that will be selected by a jury headed by Peter Chan," he said. Other jury members include Marco Muller (Venice), Niki Karimi (Iran), Lav Diaz (Singapore) and Tabassum Hashmi (India), he said. The festival will have a retrospective on Aki Kaurismaki (Finland), John Landis (USA) and Wong Kar Wai (Hongkong). Films from Russia, Switzerland and Iran would be in the `Country Focus` section wherein best of the films would be screened during the festival. IFFI 2008 will also pay tribute to Iranian film-maker Niki Karimi. Also, five films by NRI filmmakers would be screened during Film India Worldwide section. IANS