The Indian Film Festival of Ireland (IFFI) is a significant cultural celebration of both countries, the Indian Ambassador to Ireland has said.
Speaking at the media launch of the festival, which takes place in Dublin, Belfast, Limerick and Kerry from Tuesday 10 to Sunday 15 May, Ambassador PS Raghavan said film lovers in Ireland are enthusiastic about the return of the event, which began last year.
He said many people interested in Indian film have “expressed the conviction that [the IFFI] would become a traditional annual feature in Ireland’s cultural calendar”.
According to the ambassador: “The fact that IFFI 2011 is broader in scope and coverage than the inaugural edition shows an encouraging level of popular support for the festival.”
The event has also been welcomed by Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan.
“This is a very exciting initiative for Kerry and builds on a developing relationship between India and Ireland,” he said.
Siraj Zaidi, director of the IFFI, said this year’s festival has been expanded to accommodate a number of high-profile activities, including a gala charity night on Wednesday 11 May in aid of the Trinity Foundation’s Centre for South East Asian Study based in Trinity College, and a symposium on Indian cinema and visual culture on the same day also at Trinity.
Another highlight of the 2011 festival is the number of Indian celebrities expected to attend screenings, said Zaidi.
“A new breed of directors, film makers, actors, writers and actresses have been invited to represent the new wave of Indian cinema, the Indian film industry which is now truly global,” he noted.
Some of those expected to grace the occasion include film director Vishal Bhardwaj, who will not only open and close the festival but also conduct a master class in collaboration with Fás Screen Training Ireland.
Indian debut director Anusha Rizvi and Avtar Bhogal, an Indian diaspora filmmaker, will also participate.
