Utpal Borpujari

Andy DeEmmony's West is West, the critically-acclaimed sequel to the fantastic East is East starring Om Puri, Linda Bisset, Jimi Mistry and Aqib Khan, will open the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on November 22.

The programming in the festival was announced by the Government of India, the organizers of the festival, on Friday, November 19. 

One major highlight of the festival this year will be a "Cannes Kaledioscope 2010", comprising a package of films that made to Cannes this year.
This includes Jean Luc Godard's Film Socialism.

There will also be a special screening of India’s Oscar entry Peepli Live.Apart from that, there will be a package of ten Iranian films, retrospectives of Jan Jakub Kolski, Jim Jarmusch,  Michael Cacoyannis and Mira Nair, country focus sections on Sri Lanka, Mexico, Taiwaenese New Wave Cinema and Australian Indigenous Fiction Films, and a homage section on French helmer Eric Rohmer.

There will be 18 films in the Competition Section, including three from India. This time, the competition has been opened up to entries from all over the world, instead of just Asia-Africa-Latin America as it was till last year. Polish helmer Jerzy Antczak will head the jury, which has Sturla Gunnarson, Mick Molloy, Olivier Pere and Revathy Menon as members. From this year, new awards for Best Actor and Best Actress (both Silver Peacocks along with prize money worth Rs 10 lakh each - US$1=Rs 45 approximately) are being introduced in addition to the existing Golden Peacock for the best film (which comes with a prize money of Rs 40 lakh), Silver Peacocks for Best Director (prize money Rs 15 lakh), and the Special Jury Award that has a Silver Peacock and a prize money of Rs 15 lakh.

In the Indian sections, apart from the Indian Panorama of 26 feature films in various Indian languages and 21 shorts and documentaries, there will be a package of five non-feature films commemorating the golden jubilee of the Film & Television Institute of India, five films to celebrate the platinum jubilee of Odiya language cinema from eastern India, two films associated with the work of Dada Saheb Phalke Awardees (India's highest cinematic honour given by the Government) V K Murti and D Ramanaidu and a birth centenary of Indian cinema package - the birth centenary happens in 2013.

The full programme of the festival is available at http://www.iffi.nic.in