Megapolis Chennai: Bridging gaps between content and culture

CHENNAI: Film Festivals are a way to ensure that the regional content reaches a global audience as well as foreign films. Also it is a way to invite the tourist and the expat community in order to witness the local content while getting to watch their own films being applauded in a faraway land that houses a completely different culture. However, though Chennai has a few film festivals, including the Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF) that takes place every December, there has been a huge gap in celebrating the content and culture with films.

Talking about it, the team of Chennai International Film Festival is taking one step at a time in narrowing this gap. “We have come up with a ‘Competition Section for World Cinema’ since its 21st edition which happened 2 years back. Though there is no monetary reward being offered right now in this section, the winners and all participants are given a trophy and certificate which is a good recognition to start with, given the limited budget the festival works with,” the team says.

The other major step in this direction, according to the team is, having special categories like Retrospective of a Director and Country Focus where films of popular/well-known Directors are showcased and the directors are invited to participate in the festival in person. “These initiatives would definitely ensure that more and more international audience make it to the Chennai International Film Festival with each passing year. And with the introduction of new sections in which the movies will be screened, more and more audience, especially the young crowd will make it to the festival,” the team remarked.