28th International Film Festival of Kerala 2023

Festival

28th IFFK Signature Film


Signature Film

The Team



Chairman & Festival Director, IFFK: Ranjith Balakrishnan
Vice-Chairman: Prem Kumar
Secretary & Executive Director, IFFK: C Ajoy
Festival Curator: Golda Sellam 
Treasurer: Sreelal R
Deputy Director (Finance): Sajith C C
Deputy Director (Festival): H Shaji
Deputy Director (Programmes): N P Sajeesh
Festival Consultant: Thanseer 
Programme Manager (Festival): Rijoy K J
Programme Manager (Programmes): Vimal Kumar V P
Print Unit Coordinator: P S Sivakumar
Programme Assistant: Bharath Jayakumar
Festival Assistants: Nitin R Viswan, Sreevidya Nair
Research Assistant: Amrutha Sudarsan
Archives Assistant: Muhammed Sajeer A V
Accountant: Sarath M
Technical Assistant: Arun B L
Festival Cell: Mary Ninan, Unnikrishnan, K Harikumar, Sandhya B,
John Kurian, Nishanth S T, Anu B S, Kannan R S, Jaya L,
G Sasikala, Abdulla A, Manu M, Shamlal S, K Venukuttan
Nair, Vijayamohan B, Arun R, A Maheshkumar, Lizy M,
Omana J, Jayakumari D, Sahadevan R, Rahul Vijayan, Joydas

Website: Deepthi N H, Sabitha G, Pranav VV, Girish kumar VS, Chitra Reshmi
Software: Kavitha T K, Mony P G 
Project Management: Biju S B, Ashish P S, Sumesh J S
Signature Film: Thomman  Lukose, Boby Rajan  
Photography: AJ Joji
Design & Branding: Raj Maxinto; Concept: Mujeeb Madathil, Raj Maxinto
Filmmakers’ Liaison & Guest Relations: Bandhu Prasad~Aleyamma,
Jayesh L R, Shelly J Bella, Mohammed Rameez S, Jithin Mohan A S,
Mohit R and Vishnu V I (Trivi Art Concerns)

Delegate Cell: Prabhath Surendran, Umesh Ambujendran,
Praveen B S, Chindu S K

Social Media: Streamline Printers & Advertisers 
Vishnu O S (Team Lead), Leonald Daisy Mathew (Content Head)
Sumiesh S (Designing Head), Sidharth A L (Social Media Manager) 

Team Members: Arya A T, Adwaith B Raj, Niya Dillo, Oshin Anilkumar, Akshay K S

FESTIVAL BOOK
Chief Editor: C Ajoy
Executive Editor: Rahul S
Associate Editors: Dr Nowfal N, Sruthi A Sreekumar, Mehana Sajan
Editorial Team: Kaikasi VS, Dhanya Maria Babu, Anugraha Shaji, Thapasya Ashok, 
Sreaya Sreekumar, Abhirami SR, Sidharth M Joy, Asif Abdul Kalam, Jayakumar

Book Design: Raj Maxinto
Word Processing & Page Setting: Sivaprasad B

JURY


International Competition

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Rita Azevedo Gomes
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Pablo César
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Boukary Sawadogo
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Kiki Fung
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Pan Nalin

NETPAC

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Prasanna Vithanage
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Mara Matta
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Vidyashankar N

FIPRESCI

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Pierre Simon Gutman
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Melis Behlil
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Minakshi Dutta

FFSI KR Mohanan Endowment

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T V Chandran
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Vidhu Vincent
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Amitava Ghosh

Awards

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Suvarna Chakoram for Best Film

Yoshio Kitagawa, DoP of Evil Does Not Exist receiving the Suvarna Chakoram for Best Film on behalf of director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and producer Satoshi Takata from KSFDC Chairman and filmmaker Shaji N Karun
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Rajata Chakoram for Best Director

Shokir Kholikov, director of Sunday receiving the Rajata Chakoram for Best Director from KSCA Chairman Ranjith
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Rajata Chakoram for Best Debut Director

Fazil Razak, director of The Sentence/ Thadavu receiving the Rajata Chakoram for Best Debut Director from KSCA Chairman Ranjith
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Audience Poll Award

Director - Producer Fazil Razak, Co- Producer Pramod Dev and the cast and crew of Thadavu / The Sentence receiving the Audience Poll Award of 28th IFFK from KCWB Chairman and Filmmaker Madhupal
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FIPRESCI Award for Best International Film

Felipe Carmona, director of Prison in Andes receiving the FIPRESCI Award for the Best Film in International Competition from Adv D Suresh Kumar, District Panchayat President, Thiruvananthapuram
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NETPAC Award for the Best Asian Film

Shokir Kholikov, director of Sunday receiving the NETPAC Award for the Best Asian Film in Competition from VK Prasanth MLA
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Jury Prize

Tatiana Graullera, producer of Totem receiving the Jury Prize for Sound Design for All The Silence on behalf of Lilliana Villasenor, Miguel Hernandez and Mario M Cobos from KSCA Vice Chairman Prem Kumar

Films

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The Exorcist
The Exorcist
Midnight Cinema
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Tiger Stripes
Tiger Stripes
Midnight Cinema
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Los colonos
The Settlers
Mapping Power and Space - Latin American Cinema
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Temas propios
Family Album
Mapping Power and Space - Latin American Cinema
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El reino de Dios
The Realm of God
Mapping Power and Space - Latin American Cinema
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La Uruguay
The Girl from Uruguay
Mapping Power and Space - Latin American Cinema
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Los delincuentes
The Delinquents
Mapping Power and Space - Latin American Cinema
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Paths of Glory
Paths of Glory
Decolonizing The Mind
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Programmes

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Civil war made me mentally impotent- Prasanna Vithanage

Masterclass

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More women need to engage in the technical sector of Cinema- Shruthi Sharanyam

Masterclass

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Without love, there is no scope for life - Zanussi

Masterclass

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Aravindan made Cinema of Integrity- Saeed Akhtar Mirza

Lecture

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Malayalam Cinema is experiencing only occasional changes, says Open Forum

Open Forum

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“Cinema is an arc that moves with time and light,” says Rita Azevedo Gomes

In Conversation

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Each voice needs to be heard in cinema, says Wanuri Kahiu

In Conversation

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Cinema, like Maya or Light, reveals only a part of Reality- Pablo César

In Conversation

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Need to Consider Art as Art - Krzysztof Zanussi

In Conversation

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Downloads

Daily Bulletin


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Daily Bulletin- December 15

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Daily Bulletin- December 14

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Daily Bulletin- December 13

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Daily Bulletin- December 12

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Daily Bulletin- December 11

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Daily Bulletin- December 10

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Daily Bulletin- December 9

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Daily Bulletin- December 8

Pablo César
Jury

Pablo César is Argentine, born in Buenos Aires in 1962.
He is the only Latin American filmmaker who has dedicated himself for more than 30 years to dealing with African themes, filming in Africa, and addressing issues related to Afro-descendants and the African cultural legacy in Argentine society. Pablo has been dedicated to professional cinema since 1987. He directed 16 long feature films, of which 9 are co-productions with African nations, making him a pioneer and unique in Latin America, and also 2 co-productions with India and 2 long documentaries.He has filmed in Tunisia, Cape Verde, Mali, Benin, Angola, Ethiopia, Namibia, Morocco.
Pablo has given seminars and workshops on Latin America-Africa film cooperation in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Togo and Egypt. In addition, he has two films in co-production with India.
He is professor at the Universidad del Cine de Buenos Aires since 1992. He has won international awards and has also participated as a jury at the festivals of Amiens (France), Montreal (Canada, Festival de Cine Joven), Kelibia (Tunisia), Huy (Belgium), Hyderabad (India), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Nador (Morocco), Abuja (Nigeria), Carthage (Tunisia) and IFFI Goa (India) and Pune (India).

Pan Nalin
Jury

Pan Nalin is a writer, director, and producer. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) in its esteemed Directors’ Branch, Nalin is also a member of the French Academy of Arts and Techniques of Cinema (Cesars).  He is celebrated worldwide for his empowering, eclectic, deeply emotional, and visually striking movies including “Samsara”  “Valley of Flowers” “Faith Connections” and “Angry Indian Goddesses.” His latest; Last Film Show (Chhello Show) received an Oscar Shortlist Nomination as the Best International Film 2023. His films have collectively won more than 70 international awards at festivals like AFI, Toronto, Tribeca, Busan, Sundance, Valladolid, Melbourne, Rome among others. Nalin and his company Monsoon Films have coproduced films with USA, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand. Nalin’s films have been theatrically distributed in 80 countries with major commercial success through partnerships with distributors like Miramax and Samuel Goldwyn Films USA, Shochiku Japan, Medusa Studios Italy, Orange Studio France, and Pandora Film Germany.

Vidyashankar N
Jury

Vidyashankar N was the Artistic Director of Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes), which completed 12 editions. He is a former President and Secretary of Suchitra Film Society in Bengaluru.
He has been lecturing and writing on World Cinema, Indian and Kannada cinema for over three decades and writes regularly for the media. He is a member of FIPRESCI and NETPAC. He was Managing Editor of a literary journal in Kannada and the editor of a Film Society journal. He has compiled a book on European Film theories in Kannada and edited a book on African Cinema. He was a chairperson of the NETPAC International Jury at Busan Film Festival, member of FIPRESCI Critics Jury at the 70th Cannes International Film Festival apart from numerous festivals around the globe. He was invited to participate in a colloquium on Russian Cinema St. Petersburg, Russia in 2019.

Prasanna Vithanage
Jury

Udaya Prasanna Vithanage is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. He is considered one of the pioneers of the third generation of Sri Lankan cinema. He has directed eight feature films including Death on a Full Moon Day (1997), August Sun (2003), Flowers of the Sky (2008) and With You, Without You (2012) and won many prestigious national and international awards and have also been commercially successful in Sri Lanka. In his early theatre work, he translated and produced plays by international writers, adapted works of world literature to film. He has battled against the censorship in
Sri Lanka and worked as an educator of cinema who has conducted many Master classes in the subcontinent for young filmmakers and enthusiasts.

Mara Matta
Jury

Mara Matta holds a Ph.D. in South and East Asian studies and currently is a researcher in South Asian Studies at ‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma, where she teaches Modern Literatures of the Indian Subcontinent. Her researches focus on indigenous literatures, cinemas and performing arts along/across South Asian borderlands. She works on writings and cultural productions by South Asian migrants in Italy, especially Bangladeshis. Her interest in theatre and cinema as tools of social change has led her to meet different theatre activists and filmmakers in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Italy and UK. She is a member of the NETPAC and of the Archive of Migrant Memories (AMM, Rome). She is currently working on Bidrohinis: Writings of Adivasi Women of Bangladesh. The Diary of Kalpana Chakma and Other Literary Dimensions of Dissent. Her recent publications include a monograph on social and political theatre in Nepal: Nepal: A Theatre for Better Reasons.

Vidhu Vincent
Jury

Vidhu Vincent is an Indian film director, writer, journalist and theatre activist from Kerala. Her debut film Manhole won her the Kerala State Film Award for Best Director. It also won awards at IFFK and the John Abraham award. Vidhu became the first woman from Kerala to have a film screened in the history of the festival. She became the first woman to win a State Award in the category. She received the 2020 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Travelogue. In 2010, Vincent became the first president of Penkoottu, an organisation which highlights the plight of women employees in the unorganised sector.

T V Chandran
Jury

T V Chandran is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and actor, predominantly working in Malayalam cinema. He did the lead role in P A Backer’s highly acclaimed Kabani Nadi Chuvannappol (1975). He made his directorial debut with the unreleased feature Krishnan Kutty, and followed this with Hemavin Kadhalargal. Chandran came into prominence after Alicinte Anveshanam (1989), which was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival. This was followed with Ponthan Mada. Chandran is most known for his art-house films which have references to history and undertones of politics and feminism. He is also known for his trilogy on 2002 Gujarat riots, Kathavasheshan, Vilapangalkappuram and Bhoomiyude Avakashikal. Other acclaimed films include Mangamma, Dany and Paadam Onnu: Oru Vilapam (2003). Chandran has won six National Film Awards and ten Kerala State Film Awards. In 2023, Chandran was awarded the J C Daniel Award, the highest award in Malayalam cinema.

Amitava Ghosh
Jury

Amitava Ghosh is the founder secretary of Celluloid Chapter Jamshedpur which was established in 1985. Celluloid Chapter in Jharkhand is one of the biggest and most active film societies in Eastern India region. He has been functioning as the general secretary of the Federation of Film Societies of India since 2016. Apart from film society activities Amitava Ghosh is a renowned trade union leader in the public sector banking industry. He is actively involved in many philanthropic activities especially in the field of art and culture in the vast tribal areas of Jharkhand.

Pierre Simon Gutman
Jury

Pierre-Simon Gutman is the deputy editor-in-chief of L’Avant-scène cinéma and professor of film history and directing at ESRA (Ecole Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle) Paris and Brussels. After
studying literature and cinema at the Sorbonne, he defended a thesis on the American filmmaker Michael Cimino at the University of Paris VII (“The Creation of an American Community in the Cinema of Michael Cimino”) and taught cinema at the University (Paris VII, Nancy 2). He has collaborated and published numerous articles for Les Fiches du cinéma, Trois Couleurs, Eclipses and  L’Annuel du cinéma. For seven years, he was a short- and feature-length selector for the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week and directed several short films himself. He is a regular speaker in cinemas and festivals.

Minakshi Dutta
Jury

Dr Minakshi Dutta is an Assistant Professor at the department of Cultural Studies, Assam Women’s University, Jorhat, Assam. She is an active member of FIPRESCI, India. She has published many articles on cinema in reputed International and National journals. She has also authored/edited books on Assamese cinema.

Melis Behlil
Jury

Melis Behlil is an Associate Professor and Chair of Radio, Television and Cinema Department at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. She has published on media industries and contemporary Turkish cinema. She has also been a visiting scholar at MIT and a Research Associate at Stockholm University. In addition to teaching and other academic duties, she writes film reviews for various publications, co-hosts a weekly radio show, and is a member of the Turkish Film Critics Association. She is also a board member for the Turkish Film Critics Association.

Rita Azevedo Gomes
Jury

Rita Azevedo Gomes is a Portuguese director, screenwriter and winner of several film festivals, including the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema, Caminhos do Cinema Portuguese, DocLisboa and the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival. She is also known as a graphic artist, being responsible for several of the publications of the Cinemateca Portuguesa, where she is responsible for the programming and the exhibition space. She has worked primarily as an artistic director, set designer and costume designer in plays such as Sophocles’ Antigone and Chekhov’s The Seagull; and in operas such as Henry Purcell’s King Arthur and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. She also works as a costume designer, assistant director and scene photographer in films by other directors, including Werner Schröeter, Manoel de Oliveira, Luís Noronha da Costa, Valeria Sarmiento and Eduardo Gregório.

Boukary Sawadogo
Jury

Dr Boukary Sawadogo is an Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Black Studies at The City College of New York. He is an African cinema scholar and media professional who has published extensively on African cinema, including film reviews, articles, book chapters, and books. His three books on African cinema are required readings in several courses on African cinema that are taught at American universities. He has experience serving as a jury member in film festivals in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa. Dr. Sawadogo is also a regular guest speaker at universities, and research and cultural organizations. Beyond film and media industries, Dr Boukary Sawadogo’s work is widening in scope and depth to interrogate the place and trajectory of Africa today in the world through the diasporas. In this respect, he has authored Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story (2022).

Kiki Fung
Jury

Kiki Fung is film critic, curator, and Programme Consultant for Hong Kong International Film Festival. She was former Head Programmer for Brisbane International Film Festival and its successor, Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival. She has guest-curated for the Brisbane Festival and Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Before moving to Australia in 2010, she served at the Hong Kong Film Archive for seven years in areas of programme organisation, management and publication editing, having assisted in editing three volumes of Hong Kong Filmography, among others. She is a member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and Hong Kong Film Critics Society; her recent essays published in Ain Ling Wong (ed)’s The Cinema of Wong Kar-wai and HKIFF Society (ed)’s Naruse Mikio, 110th Anniversary.