Cinevesture International Film Festival (CIFF) Set to Transform Chandigarh's Cinematic Landscape

The first international film festival, Cinevesture International Film Festival (CIFF), which will take place in Chandigarh from March 27 to March 31, revealed its lineup of over 67 titles on Monday. The titles include classics, worldwide, Indian feature films, and short films.

The French culinary thriller "The Taste of Things," starring Juliette Binoche and winner of the Cannes Best filmmaker award for filmmaker Tran Anh Hung, will begin the festival. The horror drama "Exhuma" (also known as "Pamyo"), which is South Korea's biggest grossing movie of 2024, will bring it to a close.

The CIFF will feature a selection of 24 children's films, a world cinema section with 24 award-winning foreign features, an India Unveiled section with 17 independent jewels, 27 shorts in Brief Encounters, and a timeless classics section with films from Satyajit Ray to Guru Dutt.

Acclaimed movies like the Holocaust drama "The Zone of Interest," which took home the international feature film Oscar on Sunday, Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Monster," which won the Palme d'Or award for best actor last year, "The Whale," and the critically acclaimed documentary "Seven Winters in Tehran" will be screened at the festival.

Award-winning Indian films and documentaries include "Sthal," "Stolen," "Tora's Husband" (as directed by Rima Das), "Adh Chanani Raat" (a Punjabi film by Gurvinder Singh), "Malaikottai Vaaliban" (a Malayalam film by Lijo Jose Pellissery), "And, Towards Happy Alleys" (a documentary by Sreemoyee Singh), "A tribute to Iranian cinema and poetry featuring Jafar Panahi, Varun Grover's short "Kiss," and the Riz Ahmed-starring short "Dammi" are also included in the schedule.

Richa Chadha, Ali Fazal, Roshan Mathew, Gulshan Devaiah, Varun Grover, Rasika Duggal, vocalist Rashmeet Kaur, Hansal Mehta, Shekhar Kapur, Sudhir Mishra, and Tahira Kashyap Khurrana are among the celebrities that will be present at the festival.

The primary location of CIFF 2024, the Government Museum & Arts Gallery, Sector 10, will host outdoor screenings of the opening and closing films. Three further outdoor screenings of beloved films, including "Jalsaghar," "Kaagaz Ke Phool," "The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone," and a reimagining of Francis Ford Coppola's original "Godfather 3," are planned to commemorate the film's 30th anniversary.

Along with the National Film Archives (NFDC) and Chandigarh College of Architecture students, an immersive movie display has been built up in the Rose Garden Underpass to commemorate the centennials of Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. From March 27–31, 2024, at 9 AM, all kids between the ages of 10 and 17 can watch children's movies at Cinepolis Jagat.

The festival's first edition, which is being organized by Nina Lath, founder and CEO of Cinevesture Pvt Ltd, will also include CIFF/market, which aims to support the film industry and the art form. Currently available for purchase are over fifteen carefully chosen projects by prominent Indian film industry creators. Workshops, master seminars, and panel discussions will also be held throughout CIFF.

"The goal of the Cinevesture International Film Festival is to provide a forum for the two main players, who are the producers and the audience. The same has been considered in the design of its numerous verticals. We have faith that over time, CIFF will establish itself as a dependable event providing top-notch programming for viewers and expanded commercial prospects for the motion picture industry, stated Nina Lath.

The Department of Tourism in Chandigarh, the Government Museum & Art Gallery, and the Chandigarh Administration all support the festival.

The festival's director, retired IAS VS Kundu, was once head of the National Films Division of India. Bina Paul, a seasoned professional in the field, is the artistic director.

Chandigarh Tourism, the Department of Culture, and the Chandigarh Administration are collaborating to present CIFF, the first international film festival to take place in Chandigarh. "It is an authentically global film festival crafted to rival the top international film festivals," stated Kundu.

"Our goal is to create a solid platform for an annual event that the international film industry will be excited about, and which will encourage productive business partnerships between distributors, producers, and regional filmmakers," he continued.

Paul stated that the festival wants to provide the people of Chandigarh with "a potpourri of cinema".

"Everyone will find something to enjoy. International and Indian films that are festival favorites will be screened, along with the newest releases in French, Japanese, and Korean cinema for movie enthusiasts and students alike. Youngsters will get the opportunity to watch movies from throughout the globe and hear tales they might not otherwise hear," the speaker stated.

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