Nitte University to organize third international film festival from April 8

Team Udayavani, Apr 4, 2019, 7:46 PM IST

Mangaluru: Nitte International Film Festival, presented by Nitte (Deemed-to-be) University, is back for its third edition from April 8-11 at Bharath Cinemas in Bharath Mall.

All film-screenings and discussions at the festival are free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis. The festival aims to showcase critically acclaimed cinema from across India and the world to the public in Mangaluru, while providing a platform for film-makers and film-viewers to have a conversation.

The festival will kick off on April 8 at 9.30 a.m. with the inauguration by P Sheshadri, who has directed eight National Award winning films. NIFF will open with the acclaimed director’s latest film, Mookajjiya Kanasugalu. The line-up for this year includes Ee. Ma. Yu. (Malayalam), Kaala (Tamil), Paddayi (Tulu), October (Hindi), Tumbbad (Hindi), Redu (Marathi), Dithee (Marathi), Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shale – Kasargod (Kannada), Abyakto (Bengali). The festival’s closing film is Kumbalangi Nights (Malayalam). The schedule is available on NIFF’s facebook page.

Recognising the lacuna in Mangaluru’s arts and culture landscape for a major film festival, NIFF was launched in 2017 as a student-run festival organized by Nitte Institute of Communication. For its third edition, NIFF is all set to build on its success from last two years, with more than 70 films in different languages including Hindi, Tulu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Telegu, Tamil, Portuguese and French. Three screens at Bharath Cinemas will be dedicated to festival films on all four days.

The festival will host film personalities such as Rishab Shetty, Sumitra Bhave, Vaidehi, Veena Bakshi, Abhaya Simha, Anjali Patil, Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan, Sanchari Vijay, Aijaz Khan and Priya Krishnaswamy. There will be an interactive session with each filmmaker after the screening of their film.

National award-winning film critic Manu Chakravarthy will be in conversation with P Sheshadri on ‘Film as Text: Understanding the Writings of Shivaram Karanth through Cinema’ at 5:15 p.m. on April 8. There will also be a panel discussion on film criticism with noted film critics Baradwaj Rangan, Sowmya Rajendran and Roshan Nair moderated by film maker Aijaz Khan at 7:00 p.m. on April 9.