International Film Festival of India to Honor Luc Besson, Phillip Noyce

NEW DELHI - The 42nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), to be held in Goa from Nov. 23 – Dec. 3, will include a retrospective of selected films by Luc Besson and Phillip Noyce.

IFFI 2011 will open with Portugese film The Consul of Bordeaux directed by Manuel Gonzales. Described as a Portugese variation of Schindler's List, The Consul of Bordeaux is based on the life of Portuguese consul general Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux, France, who gave safe passage to thousands of Jewish refugees out of France, after Hitler's armed forces invaded Belgium and the Netherlands in May 1940.

IFFI's opening ceremony will be graced by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
The festival, which was earlier organized under the umbrella of the government's Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), has now been de-linked from DFF with the establishment of a specially created independent entity, IFFI Directorate, under the Information and Broadcasting  Ministry.

According to organizers, Besson is expected to visit the festival during the screening of seven of his selected movies including The Big Blue, Leon, The Fifth Element and Angel A. The Phillip Noyce retrospective will include titles such as Newsfront and Rabbit-Proof Fence.

Meanwhile, the National Film Development Corporation's annual Film Bazaar will run from Nov. 23 – 27 in Goa. This year's Film Bazaar has selected 22 projects for its coproduction market from a mix of Indian and international directors including Dibankar Banerjee, Daniel Tanovic and Italian director Roberto San Pietro.

Like last year's event, Film Bazaar will also feature a Screenwriters’ Lab (in collaboration with Amsterdam-based Binger Filmlab) a Work-in-Progress Lab and Knowledge Series seminars.