Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Churuli and Jayaraj’s Hasyam have been selected for competition at the 25th edition of the prestigious IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala) in Thiruvananthapuram. The two Malayalam films have been selected for competition in the International category and will be screened at the IFFK, which will be held from February 12 to February 19 next year. Filmmaker Mohit Priyadarshi’s Hindi film Kosa and Akshay Indiker’s Marathi film Chronicle of Space or Sthalpuran have also been selected in this category.
Further, 12 Malayalam films have been selected to compete in a category named ‘Malayalam Cinema Today’. These are: Gramavrikshathile Kuyil (Cuckoo on the Village Tree) by KP Kumaran, C U Soon by Mahesh Narayan, Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam (The First Secret to Happiness) by Don Palathara, Love by Khalid Rahman, Musical Chair by Vipin Atlee, Attention Please by Jithin SK Thomas, Vaak (Word) by Kavya Prakash, Paka (Revenge) - The River of Blood by Nithin Lukose, Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam (The Engagement is on Monday) by Senna Hegde, Paapam Cheyyathavar Kalleriyatte by Shambhu Purushothaman, Android Kunjappan Version 5.25 by Ratheesh Balakrishnan Pothuvaal, and Kayattam (Height) by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan.
A panel chaired by director Mohan and with members S Kumar, Pradeep Nair, Priya Nair and Father Benny Benedict picked the films in the 'Malayalam Cinema Today' category. Seven movies have been selected for the ‘Indian Cinema Now’ category. These are Milestone or Meel Patthar by Ivan Ayr in Hindi, Punjabi and Kashmiri, Nasir by Arun Karthick in Tamil, Kuthiraivaal or Horsetail by Manoj Jahson and Shyam Sundar in Tamil, The Disciple by Chaitanya Tamhane in Marathi, Hindi, English and Bengali, Pig or Seththumaan by filmmaker Thamizh in Tamil, Where is Pinki/Pinki Elli by Prithvi Konanur in Kannada, Laila aur Saat Geet or The Shepherdess and The Seven Songs by Pushpendra Singh in Hindi.
Six films have been selected in the Kaleidoscope category for the IFFK. These films were selected by a committee comprising filmmaker Kamal, film editor Bina Paul, filmmaker Sibi Malayil, Academy Award winning sound editor Resul Pookutty, film critic VK Joseph and lyricist C Ajoy. The films are— 1956/
IFFK is a prestigious film festival which was started by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy in 1996.