IFFI 52, 033: Siraj Syed article in the Marathi language newspaper, Gomantak, Goa published on 27 November 2021. Translated from the English by Anant Salkar.   ...

IFFI 50: Awry scheduling When you are holding a competitive festival, the films in the Competition Section are the most important items in your showcase. Fill-buffs wait with bated breath to see who wins the awards at the closing function, which is scheduled at IFFI a full eight days after the inauguration. So, the suspense lasts eight days. In those eight days, if your interest is in the best of contemporary cinema, you make your own guesses, and compare your bests with the Jury’s ver...

© Abbot GENSER This morning I woke bright and early to attend the 8:30 screening of Charlie Kaufman's Synedoche, New York. Being familiar with Kaufman's resume gave me some expectations of the film, and I wasn't far off with my predictions; like in his previous screenplays, Kaufman explores the boundary separating reality and imagination within the creative mind of Philip Seymour Hoffman's character, Caden.Caden is a theater dire...

The first screening of Arnaud Desplechin's "Un Conte de Noel", which is entered in the Festival's competition, took place this morning at 8:30 for the press. The 2 hour and 30 minute film featured 9 actors and explored the relationship between family, illness, and medicine. As they exited, members of the press appeared fatigued and nonplussed. One journalist went as far to say it was unbelievable that he went into the movie at 8:30, and when he came out it wa...

Competition : "Waltz with Bashir" by Ari Folman Screenings of the animated film, "Waltz with Bashir" open today in Cannes, on the second day of the Festival. Last year in Competition was "Persépolis", a new style of animated film dealing with certain Middle East topics which won the Jury Prize. This year there is another animated film up for the Palme d’Or which also explores themes in the Middle East based on perso...