IFFK to screen all films despite Centre denying clearance: Kerala CM
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has decided to screen all films as scheduled despite the information and broadcasting ministry denying censor exemption to over a dozen movies charted for screening at the festival
New Delhi:The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has decided to screen all films as scheduled despite the information and broadcasting ministry denying censor exemption to over a dozen movies charted for screening at the festival, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday.
“The Union Government’s decision to deny screening permission to films scheduled to be shown at the 30th International Film Festival of Kerala is unacceptable,” the CM said in a post on Facebook.
He added: “The censorship imposed at the film festival is a stark example of the authoritarian rule of the Sangh Parivar regime, which seeks to suppress dissenting voices and diverse creative expressions in the country. Enlightened Kerala will not bow to such acts of censorship. All films that were denied screening permission will be screened at the festival.”
Kerala culture minister Saji Cherian, too, criticised the Centre’s decision. “The action denying the Central Ministry of Media and Broadcasting [I&B] ‘Censor Exemption’ for 19 films selected to screen at the 30th International Film Festival (IFFK) is an unnecessary invasion of the cultural sector of Kerala. This anti democratic approach is unacceptable,” he said in an Instagram post in Malayalam.
The films denied screening include Palestinian films Once Upon a Time in Gaza, All That’s Left of You and Wajib; along with A Poet: Unconcealed Poetry, Clash, Yes, Flames, and Eagles of the Republic. Another film, Santhosh, was withdrawn by the IFFK as it lacked a CBFC certificate, IFFK director Resul Pookutty said.
According to people familiar with the matter, the standoff between festival organisers and the central government follows delays in granting screening exemptions by the I&B ministry to some films scheduled for the festival, which is underway in Thiruvananthapuram from December 12 to 19.
Pookutty, an Oscar, BAFTA and Padma Shri awardee, blamed the situation on an “overreactive and overzealous bureaucracy” that created hurdles for the festival’s smooth conduct.
According to Pookutty, the Centre sought “political clearance” and introduced new requirements, including asking foreign delegates to apply for conference visas instead of business visas, which he said had been the norm earlier. He added that visa clearances came on December 2, and the organisers applied for screening exemptions the next day.
As of Tuesday evening, the I&B ministry had granted exemption to 178 of the 187 films submitted by the organisers. An official aware of the matter, who has requested anonymity, said exemption for 154 films was given on December 12, the opening day of the festival, followed by 14 more on December 15 and 10 more on December 16.
However, Pookutty alleged that initially no exemptions were granted for any of the films. The official told HT that the delay in granting exemptions was due to “procedural lapses” by the organisers, adding that applications for exemption were submitted only nine days before the festival, even though ministry guidelines require 15 days to process such requests. The official added that organisers had not initially provided complete details such as synopses and trailers, and were asked to resubmit the information.
Taking note of the matter, Congress’s Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor posted on X: “It is most unfortunate that an unseemly controversy has arisen over the central government’s denial of clearance to 19 films which were scheduled to be screened at the International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram.”
Noted film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan also expressed his displeasure, saying: “Films like ‘Battleship Potemkin’, ‘The Hour of the Furnaces’ are classics of cinema. I studied those films in my school days, in my film institute days. So, it’s like a joke to ban it because almost all of us have these films at home. We keep it as a textbook. So, you cannot stop.”
The director described the decision as the “sheer lack of understanding” of the cinema by the organisers.
First held in December 1994 in Kozhikode, the IFFK focuses on films from Asia, Africa and Latin America, alongside world cinema and Malayalam films. The festival has been organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy since 1998.
In film festivals, movies without a Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) certificate are usually screened after obtaining a special ‘exemption certificate’ from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
However, the non-availability of this certificate has triggered the current disruption at IFFK 2025. IFFK 2025 is set to take place till December 19.
