After covering the 11th edition of CIFF , we felt that facets like volunteering, visibility & organization needed minor tweaks to give the festival a better facelift and reach. Our hope was indeed translated into reality by the commendable efforts of ICAF and volunteers from DG Vaishnav college. Another plus to this installment of CIFF was Natty, a fictional character in Social media, to engage the present-day audience better.
The 12th Chennai International Film Festival was held between December 18 and 25, 2014 across five screens within the city,
- Woodlands
- Woodlands Symphony
- Casino
- Russian Cultural Center Auditorium
- Inox-3
While it is true that when compared to the other film festivals in India such as IFFI, MAMI, IFFK etc our line-up needs improvement, we sincerely believe that it is not due to lack of knowledge but just plain lack of funds. While expected films like Goodbye To Language, Mommy, Corn Island, Boyhood did not make it to the festival, we did have acclaimed flicks like Wild Tales, Two Days One Night, Leviathan, Winter Sleep & our very own Kuttram Kadithal which managed to attract tremendous crowd. The CIFF team in addition to multiple fliers on circulation on venue daily, was quite active on Facebook & Twitter, being innovative & informative at the same time.
As is the norm with almost all the Film Festivals there were glitches with respect to Subtitles not loading correctly, audio being out-of-sync with video, crowd management, sudden changes in schedule etc. But it would be gross injustice to just highlight these minor hassles without taking into account the enormous amount of time & effort that must have gone behind organizing such a big event spread across a week having college students from DG Vaishnav as volunteers, who on their part did a fairly decent job at managing the proceedings.
Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere (Vietnamese, 2014) - 18th Dec
To Summarize Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere is a slow realistic drama with engaging performances - and interestingly etched characters.
Charlie’s Country (English, 2014) - 19th Dec
Life in a Fishbowl (Icelandic, 2014) - 19th Dec
To summarize this is a poignant tale with 3 plots colliding, that deserves a watch for the wonderful performances from all the actors.
Mr. Kaplan (Spanish, 2014) - 19th Dec
Roseville (Bulgarian, 2013)- 19th Dec
Yellow (Marathi, 2014) - 20th Dec
Circles (Serbian, 2013) - 20th Dec
Dreamland (German, 2013) - 20th Dec
Kuttram Kadithal (Tamil ) - 21st Dec
The film deals with a contemporary burning issue placing a set of characters in a riveting human drama where no person is in the wrong. Filled with plenty of subtext that requires multiple viewings to grasp wholly, the film features a largely fresh cast who have delivered some memorable performances in their respective roles even if they come on screen for just 5 mins (the IT friend of the female journalist, the auto driver friend etc).
Our review will be posted after the theatrical release as requested by the cast & crew of the film. For now (even though it is a clichéd statement these days), the film is undoubtedly a MUST-WATCH
Two Days, One Night (French, 2014) - 22nd Dec
Leviathan (Russian, 2014) - 22nd Dec
A slow burning movie filled engaging moments, but this is the kind of movie with many motifs and subtexts that requires multiple viewings.
Gour Hari Dastaan – The Freedom File (Hindi, 2014) - 22nd Dec
Cowboys (Croatian, 2013) - 22nd Dec
Winter Sleep (Turkish, 2014) - 23rd Dec
December-1 (Kannada, 2014) - 23rd Dec
The Fool (Russian, 2014) - 24th Dec
This 12th edition of the Chennai International Film Festival was undoubtedly a massive crowd puller as it screened 170 movies from all over the world and featured quite a few movies that had won accolades including the Tamil film “Kutram Kadithal” which won top honors in the Tamil feature film competition. This sets up giant expectations on the next edition which promises to be bigger and better, just like how it has evolved every year – now that’s the yearly phenomenon we all look forward to witness!
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