Last updated on November 13th, 2024 at 01:28 pm
Fifteen films will compete for the coveted Golden Peacock at the fifty-third edition of the International Film Festival of India, to be held from November twentieth to November twenty-eighth in Goa. The lineup of 12 international and 3 Indian films represents the emerging trends in the aesthetics and politics of art.
The Golden Peacock Award, first given out in the 3rd edition of IFFI, is one of the most prestigious film awards in Asia. This year’s jury, consisting of Israeli writer and film director Nadav Lapid, American producer Jinko Gotoh, French film editor Pascale Chavance, French documentary filmmaker, film critic, and journalist Javier Angulo Barturen and India’s film director Sudipto Sen, has the impossible task of picking a winner.
This year’s competition is heating up with :
1. Perfect Number (2022)
Krzysztof Zanussi, a Polish filmmaker, created Perfect Number as a drama to make its audience think about morality and mortality. The film explores the relationship between a young mathematician and his distant cousin and how a chance meeting between the two leads to profound meditations on the mysterious world order, the meaning of life, and its passing. It was co-produced with Italy and Israel.
2. Red Shoes (2022)
“Red Shoes” is an emotional reflection more than anything else, according to Mexican film maker Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser. The drama is about a farmer who lives an isolated life and receives news of his daughter’s death. As the farmer tries to navigate through an unfamiliar and alien world to try and bring his daughter’s body home, the film progresses. The film was in contention for the Audience Award at Venice International Film Festival, among the multiple award nominations it has received.
3. A Minor (2022)
Dariush Mehrjui, a founding member of the Iranian New Wave in 1970s, is well known among connoisseurs of Iranian cinema. A Minor, the latest film from the maestro, is back at IFFI. Despite opposition from her father, the film is about a girl who aspires to be a musician. The film explores some themes, such as complex equations between members of the same family, differing aspirations between parent and child, and the hypnotic spell of music.
4. No End (2021)
The secret police’s manipulations and machinations are depicted in the Iranian drama, No End. In a desperate attempt to keep his house, a man of quiet integrity indulges in a lie involving the secret police. The situation becomes more complicated when the real secret police become involved. Nader Saeivar’s second feature, which was a collaboration with Jafar Panahi, was nominated for the New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival. Jafar Panahi is an advisor and editor.
5. Mediterranean Fever (2022)
Maha Haj’s Mediterranean Fever is a black comedy about two middle aged friends who are also enemies. The film, woven around an unlikely partnership between an aspiring author and a small time crook, won the best screenplay award in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard competition.
6. When the waves are gone (2022)
Lav Diaz, a Filipino filmmaker, tells the story of an Investigator in the Philippines who is at a deep moral crossroads. The film discusses his dark past, which continues to haunt him even as he tries to heal from severe anxiety and guilt. Lav Diaz, who is known for his 11-hour 2004 film, Evolution of a Filipino Family, has decided that this film requires just over 3 hours to be told well.
7. I have Electric Dreams (2022)
Valentina Maurel, a Costa Rican filmmaker, won the Best Director Award at the 2022 Locarno International Film Festival with her film I have Electric Dreams. Eva, a 16-year-old girl with divorced parents, is clinging to her estranged father in the drama. She reconnects with her father and discovers surprising traits about herself. Reinaldo Amien won Best Actor and Daniela Marín Navarro won Best Actress at Locarno International Film Festival for their performances in the film.
8. Cold as Marble (2022
Asif Rustamov, a director from Azerbaijan, created Cold as Marble, a crime-drama / psycho-thriller that tells the story of a father who unexpectedly returns after being jailed for murdering his wife. The film’s focus is on a young man whom the director describes as an anti-hero of changing society. The protagonist, who is a sensitive painter and tombstone engraver, is in for the shock of his life when he finally finds out why his father killed his mother.
9. The Line (2022)
Ursula Meier’s The Line, nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, is a study of acceptance and delicate family bonds. The film by the French-Swiss film maker explores the turbulent relationship between a mother and daughter. Violence and motherhood are usually not considered together, but this drama, shot in Switzerland, features both.
10. Seven Dogs (2021)
Seven Dogs is a film that premiered at the 43rd edition of the Cairo International Film Festival. It is a story about a lonely man’s struggles to provide for his seven dogs while he is going through severe money problems. This is Argentinian Director Rodrigo Guerrero’s fourth feature film. The film, with a runtime of just over 80 minutes, explores the bond between a man and his pets.
11. Maariya: The Ocean Angel (2022)
Sri Lankan filmmaker Aruna Jayawardana’s Mariya: The Ocean Angel aims to be the second Sri Lankan film to win the Golden Peacock, a full 50 IFFI edition after Lester James Peries’s Gamperaliya won it the first time IFFI was organized as a competitive festival. Mariya: The Ocean Angel, is a film about a group of fishermen whose lives are disturbed after discovering a sex doll adrift at sea. The film director is best known for his 2011 film August Drizzle.
12. The Kashmir Files (2022)
The film, The Kashmir Files, is centered around the 1990 exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir and is in Hindi. The narration in the movie directed by Vivek Agnihotri develops around the protagonist, Krishna, a young college student who sets out to discover the truth about the untimely demise of his parents.
13. Nezouh (2022)
A drama about a family in war-torn Syria, Nezouh is the winner of the Audience Award at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival. The film is about an Arabic family who decides to stay behind in a besieged area in Syria. Soudade Kaadan, the director, said that she experienced life outside her house for the first time when their neighborhood was bombed.
14. The Storyteller (2022)
The character Tarini Khuro, created by the legendary auteur Satyajit Ray, is the basis for Anant Mahadevan’s film The Storyteller. After retiring from his job, Tarini Khuro finds himself in a peculiar situation where he becomes a story teller. The film premiered at the 2022 Busan International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Kim Ji-Seok Award.
15.Kurangu Pedal (2022)
Director Kamalakannan’s Kurangu Pedal is based on Rasi Alagappan’s short story ‘Cycle’, which is about a school boy who wants to learn to ride a cycle, even though his father is unable to teach him. The rural drama is carried forward by the five children in the film. The director is most well known for his 2012 film, Madhubaanakadai.
