Ashok Saraf to receive PIFF award

Veteran film and television actor Ashok Saraf will be honoured with the “PIFF Distinguished Award” for his contribution to Indian cinema on the inaugural day of the 19th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) held between December 2 and 9

Pune: Veteran film and television actor Ashok Saraf will be honoured with the “PIFF Distinguished Award” for his contribution to Indian cinema. He will be presented with the award on the inaugural day of the 19th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) held between December 2 and 9. Maharashtra’s cultural affairs minister Amit Deshmukh will be the chief guest for the inauguration function, said Dr Jabbar Patel, festival director of PIFF. Ravi Gupta and Samar Nakhate from the organising committee of PIFF were also present on the occasion.

Veteran film and television actor Ashok Saraf will be honoured with the “PIFF Distinguished Award” for his contribution to Indian cinema on the inaugural day of the 19th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) held between December 2 and 9. (HT FILE)

PIFF, the official film festival of Maharashtra government, scheduled to be held in March 2021, was postponed due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

The festival will showcase over 127 curated films from 57 countries at multiple venues, including PVR at Pavillion Mall on Senapati Bapat Road, Inox (Camp) and NFAI auditorium cinema halls, with mandated standard operating procedures (SOP) in place, according to organisers.

The inaugural session will take place at Anna Bhau Sathe auditorium on Satara Road at 5pm on December 2.

With the theme of the festival this year being contribution of corona warriors, representatives of various governmental organisations would be felicitated at the inauguration ceremony. The dignitaries include Pune mayor Murlidhar Mohol, Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta, Pune municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar, Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh and Sassoon General Hospital dean Dr Murlidhar Tambe.

The opening film for this edition of PIFF would be “The Women” from Mongolia screened after the inauguration function at NFAI auditorium on December 2.

The jury for this edition of PIFF would comprise A Sreekar Prasad (India), Andrej Kosak (Slovenia), Antonio La Camera (Italy), Goran Radovanovic (Belgrade), Gyorgy Baron (Budapest), Luong Dinh Dung (Vietnam), Mania Akbari (Iran) and Suman Mukhopadhyay (India).

The repertoire

The films screened during the festival include opening film 1, world competition 14, Marathi competition 7, student competition 20, global cinema 57, international retrospective: Kim Ki Duk 4, Indian retrospective: Soumitra Da 3, Indian cinema 11, Marathi cinema today 6 and tribute 4 films.