CIFF to begin on December 14

CHENNAI: The Chennai International Film Festival  (CIFF) is back and what's more, it's bigger and better. This year's festival, which is to start on December 14, is scheduled to go on until the 22nd of this month.Suhasini Maniratnam, one of the members of the committee in charge of organising the Ninth edition of the Chennai International Film Festival, said, “Shekhar Kapur will be inaugurating this year's  festival in which we have managed to strike a delicate balance between international and local films. The CIFF, organised by the Indo-Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF), is fast gaining popularity and has risen in stature.”  “The festival will begin with the award-winning film, The Kid With a Bike, directed by Jean Pierre Dardene and Luc Dardenne. It bagged the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival earlier this year. The event will end on December 22 with the screening of Le Havre by Aki Kaurismaki, which also premiered in Cannes on the final day, as the closing film,” said Thangaraj, secretary of the ICAF.As was the case last year, the film fraternity here has pledged to extend its support to the festival this year too.  The festival has five different sections – World Cinema, Retrospectives of Famous Directors, Tributes to Veteran Film Personalities, Premieres of various movies and an exclusive Indian Panorama. Nearly 154 films from 44 countries will be screened during the week-long event. Twelve Tamil films including Vetrimaran's national award-winning Aadukalam, Sakthivelu's  Maidhanam, Saravanan's Engayum Epodhum, Bala's Avan Ivan, Sargunam's Vaagai Sooda Vaa and Thoonganagaram are in the competitive category. The jury for choosing the best Tamil film will include Madhan, cartoonist, Prathap Pothen, actor, and actress Rohini.“Actress Revathy, who was part of the organising committee last year, will not be a part this year, as she is busy scripting for her film,” informed Suhasini.The festival has a special award for the most passionate film buff this year too. The Film Buff award will be awarded to the person who watches the maximum number of films and posts movie accounts on the Chennai Film Fest website (www.chennaifilmfest.com).Five shows will be held each day at the Woodlands, Woodlands Symphony, Sathyam Cinemas (Studio 5), Inox (Screen3) and the South Indian Film Chamber Theatre.Tickets for the entire festival have been priced at `500 for the general public and `300 for students and members of the film fraternity and institute.