The one- of- a -kind festival focusing on a wide array of themes ranging from conflict, culture, wildlife, environment, globalization, gender, development to lifestyles around mountains is slated to commence from December 8 to 12.[break]
Over the years, the festival has attracted not only filmmakers, film enthusiasts, and critics, but also scholars, journalists, activists, and mountaineers. The film festival in its ninth year has always stood unique among other film festivals for its devotion to promoting cinema as art and a vehicle in bringing about socio- economic transformations.
“Every year we are getting more and more qualitative work, both internationally and locally. Considering we are not a large scale festival such enthusiasm is a great morale booster,” informed Ramyata Limbu, the festival director.
According to Limbu, 37 local films were submitted for the Nepal Panorama category alone, six of which have been short-listed and will be screened during the five-day festival.
Limbu shared that since this year’s festival coincides with Visit Nepal 2011, the main focus of the festival is on adventure and exploration.
“Although we started with mountain-based theme, the subject has broadened over the years as can be seen in the showcased films that cover a wide array of subjects from culture, migration, human rights to lifestyles,” she said, adding that the festival has also become a medium to promote and uplift the film making culture in Nepal.
Altogether, 258 entries from 54 countries were received by the festival’s organizing committee – Himal Association. Of them, 52 films have been selected from 22 countries, including six short films from Tampere Film Festival, Finland.
KIMFF 2011 will also hold special screenings of Toni Hagen’s ‘Cultural Vignettes of Nepal,’ a film showcasing Nepal’s dances and music shot in the 1950s, and ‘Voice for Justice’, a film by OHCHR on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, on 10 December 2011.
Rashtriya Sabha Griha and Nepal Tourism Board, both on Exhibition Road, have been selected as the screening venues.
Seventeen films will be screened in the international competition category, twenty-one in the international non-competitive category, and six under Nepali panorama category. The top three from the international competition will receive US $1500, $1000, $500 respectively. The best film from the Nepali panorama category will receive Rs 25,000 from the Film Development Board of Nepal.
Cultural producer based in Helsinki, Finland Helena Mielonen, a British architect, mountaineer landscape painter John Innerdale and scholar, critic, actor, associate professor of English at Tribhuvan University Sanjeev Upreti, complete the three-member jury team who will be judging films in the International Competition category.
Along with the film festival, various other satellite programs include photo exhibition, scriptwriting workshop, book exhibition, interactive discussion by international film makers, and a quiz conducted by Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit, among others, will also be organized during the festival.
Tickets are priced at Rs 40 and a 50-percent discount is available for students.
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