54th International Film Festival of India

The 54th International Film Festival of India opened on 20 November 2023 with Catching Dust by Stuart Gatt in Goa. Shekhar Kapur an Indian filmmaker served as chairperson of the international jury. This year a new award category Best Web Series Award was introduced in the festival. 32 entries in 10 languages from 15 Over-the-top media service platforms were selected to compete for this award.

The festival closed on 28 November with American biographical sports drama film The Featherweight by Robert Kolodny. In the ceremony Hollywood actor-producer Michael Douglas was honoured with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Persian film Endless Borders by Abbas Amini, received the Golden Peacock award for the best film; whereas Stephan Komandarev won the Silver Peacock award for best director for the Bulgarian film Blaga's Lessons.

Opening ceremony


The opening ceremony on 20 November 2023, hosted by Karishma Tanna and Aparshakti Khurana was aired live on Colors TV and JioCinema. In this edition over 270 films from 105 countries were screened. Madhuri Dixit was felicitated with the ‘Special Recognition for Contribution to Bharatiya Cinema’ award at the festival. It was also streamed live on YouTube.

Closing ceremony


The festival closed on 28 November with The Featherweight an American biographical sports drama film on professional boxer Willie Pep by Robert Kolodny. Mandira Bedi hosted the closing ceremony, which was also streamed live on YouTube, in addition to broadcast on Colours TV channel.

Events

 * Master classes and in conversation: Masterclasses and In Conversation sessions with filmmakers, cinematographers, and actors were held at Kala Academy at Festival Mile, Panjim, during the festival. Michael Douglas American filmmaker, Brendan Galvin American poet, Brillante Mendoza Filipino independent filmmaker, Sunny Deol, Rani Mukerjee, Vidya Balan, John Goldwater, Vijay Sethupathi, Sara Ali Khan, Pankaj Tripathi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Kay Kay Menon, Karan Johar, Madhur Bhandarkar, Manoj Bajpayee, Kartiki Gonsalves, Boney Kapoor, Allu Aravind, Theodore Gluck and Gulshan Grover among others were the guest speakers.
 * Gala Premiers: Actors of the films having gala premiers at festival had talent walk on the red carpet to promote their films.
 * Film Bazaar: It concluded on 24 November with around 1250 delegates attending the Bazaar.


 * 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow: In competition of creating a short film in 48 hours on the theme of 'The Mission Life', Odh, a short film about the receding beach lines of Goa, bagged the best film award in '75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow' initiative.

International Jury
In addition to the Golden Peacock for best film, the Jury decides the winners in the Best Director, Best Actor (Male), Best Actor (Female) and Special Jury Prize categories. The following are the members of the International Jury:


 * Shekhar Kapur, Indian filmmaker, Chairperson
 * José Luis Alcaine, Spanish cinematographer
 * Jerome Paillard, French film producer of international films
 * Catherine Dussart, French film producer of international films
 * Helen Leake, Australian film producer

Feature film jury
The Feature Films Jury headed by T.S Nagabharana is as follows:


 * T. S. Nagabharana, chairperson, Indian film director
 * Karthik Raja, Indian composer
 * Anjan Bose, filmmaker, producer, distributor
 * Iti Rani Samanta, Indian columnist, journalist and film producer
 * K. P. Vyasan, Indian film director
 * Kamlesh Mishra, film director
 * Kiran Ganti, film editor
 * Milind Lele, film director
 * Pradip Kurbah, film director
 * Rama Vij, Indian actress
 * Romi Meitei, Indian film director and lyricist
 * Sanjay Jadhav, Indian cinematographer
 * Vijay Pande, film director and editor

Non-feature film jury
The Jury headed by Shri Arvind Sinha, has following seven member:


 * Arvind Sinha, chairperson, documentary filmmaker
 * Arvind Pandey; film director and writer
 * Bobby Wahengbam; Indian filmmaker, producer, writer and film critic
 * Dip Bhuyan; film director
 * Kamlesh Udasi; film director and producer
 * Paushali Ganguli; animator, film director and screenwriter
 * Varun Kurtkoti; film director

Best web series (OTT) award jury
Rajkumar Hirani is serving as the head of the jury for the 'best web series (OTT)' award.
 * Rajkumar Hirani, Indian filmmaker, director, producer, and editor
 * Divya Dutta, Indian actress and model
 * Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indian actor and producer
 * Krishna DK Indian filmmaker
 * Utpal Borpujari, filmmaker and film critic

Grand Jury
Source:
 * Shreya Ghoshal, Playback Singer
 * A. Sreekar Prasad, Editor
 * Manoj Joshi, Actor
 * Veera Kapur, Costume designer and make-up artist
 * Priya Seth, Cinematographer
 * Saraswathi Vani Balgam, Animator, VFX artist and AR-VR developer
 * Saleel Kulkarni, Music composer
 * Umesh Shukla, Filmmaker
 * Sabu Cyril, Art director
 * Aseem Arora, Screenwriter

Selection Jury
Source:
 * Manoj Tiger, Actor
 * Nidhi Hegde, Actress
 * Abhishek Jain, Filmmaker
 * Manish Sharma, Filmmaker
 * Charudutt Acharya, Screenwriter
 * Deepak Kingrani, Screenwriter
 * Charuvi Agrawal, Animator, VFX artist and AR-VR developer
 * Deepak Singh, Animator, VFX artist and AR-VR developer
 * Naveen Nooli, Editor
 * Suresh Pai, Editor
 * Dharam Gulati, Cinematographer
 * Subhransu Das, Cinematographer
 * Nachiket Barve, Costume designer and make-up artist
 * Bishakh Jyoti, Playback singer
 * Anmol Bhave, Music composer
 * Sabyasachi Bose, Art director

Official selection

 * Sections
 * Gala Premiere
 * Kaleidoscope section
 * Golden Peacock Award
 * Films for debut competition
 * ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal
 * Docu-Montage
 * Intergrade
 * Animation
 * Macabre Dreams
 * Indian Panorama
 * Feature films
 * Mainstream Cinema Section
 * Non-feature films
 * Indian Cinema 2023
 * Accessible India – Accessible Films
 * Special screening
 * Cinema of the World
 * Restored Classics
 * UNICEF @ IFFI

Opening and closing films
Source:

Kaleidoscope section
18 films were shortlisted for screening under Kaleidoscope section.

Golden Peacock Award
15 international and Indian fiction feature films competed for the Golden Peacock Award
 * Highlighted title indicates award winner

Films for debut competition
This competition category is a platform for upcoming filmmakers from India and abroad. Seven debut films were nominated in this category.


 * Highlighted title indicates award winner

IFFI ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal

 * Highlighted title indicates award winner

Docu-Montage
This section comprises documentaries & docu-drama.

Indian Panorama
In Indian Panorama feature and non-feature films of cinematic, thematic, and aesthetic excellence are selected for the promotion of film art through the non-profit screening of these films under different categories.

Feature films
India's entry for the 2024 Academy Awards, Malayalam-language film 2018, was screened in the Indian Panorama 'Mainstream Cinema Section'. 25 Feature films reflecting the vibrancy and diversity of the Indian film Industry have been selected out of 408 contemporary films for screening.

Non-feature Films
20 Non-feature films selected in the 'Indian Panorama' are as follows:

Cinema of the World
The Melody movie, written, directed, produced, and edited by Behrouz Sebt Rasoul, was selected as the Tajik entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards,

Restored classics
The birth centenary of actor Dev Anand is celebrated with restored versions of some of his classics. There are three internationally restored films also in this section. Four regional films are also screened in this section.

UNICEF @ IFFI
Source:

Awards and winners