The 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held in Panaji, Goa from November 20 to 28 and will feature over 240 films from 81 countries, including 13 world premieres, five international premieres, and 44 Asian premieres. With filmmaker Shekhar Kapur serving as the festival director, IFFI also unveiled its jury for the Indian Panorama section on Monday. The feature film jury is headed by actor Raja Bundela, while Dharam Gulati leads the jury for non-feature category. Other jury members include Krishna Hebbale, Kamlesh K Mishra, Malay Ray, Subhash Sehgal, Jadumoni Dutta, Aroon Baksi, Asim Sinha, Ashok Sharan, Sukumar Jatania, BS Basavaraju, Amaresh Chakrabarti, and Napoleon Thanga. The internet was quick to point out that the jury did not have any women.
The comments section of IFFI’s Instagram had posts from users who highlighted this. “All men?,” asked a user. “Lack of women in the jury is glaring, do better!,” commented another. “Women jury in a separate post?,” asked a user sarcastically. Another one added on the same lines: “Is there a separate panel for women with women-only feature films with an all women jury? or…?”
Some Instagram users were more direct with their criticism. One of them asked, “Did you not find any women on the jury in all of India?” “Women filmmakers are busy making the headlines so they felt a little left out hence, they made a manel!,” remarked another. In the past year, female filmmakers have made many notable films in Indian cinema.
Kiran Rao’s coming-of-age comedy Laapataa Ladies was selected as India’s official Oscars entry. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light fetched global acclaim, as it was nominated at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. Sandhya Suri’s gritty drama Santosh was screened at the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also selected as the UK’s official Oscars entry, although its India release has been pushed multiple times.
Meanwhile, this year’s festival received a record 2,314 submissions from 127 countries, including 1098 entries from 18 different languages from India. Festival director Shekhar Kapur said the previous edition received a footfall of 20,000 participants and they intend to take the number to one lakh in the next four years.
The film gala will feature an extensive slate of 21 masterclasses and panel discussions across 10 formats at Kala Academy, bringing together some of the most prominent names in Indian and international cinema. Participants include Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Anupam Kher, Aamir Khan, Bobby Deol, Ravi Varman, Kushboo Sundar, Suhasini Maniratnam, Christopher Charles Corbould, Pete Draper and Sreekar Prasad. The Indian Panorama section will feature 25 feature films, 20 non-feature films and 5 debut features. Tamil film Amaran, directed by Rajkumar Periyasamy and starring Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi, will open the feature category, while Kakori will open the non-feature section.
