The 'touring habit' of International Film Festival of Kerala from one city to another will be a thing of past. A proposal to make Trivandrum the permanent venue for the festival is under consideration. It was the Information and Broadcasting Ministry at the Center that decided to do away with the present system of organising Indian International Film Festival (IFFI) in the five metros of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad in turn, coming back to Delhi every alternate year.

There were attempts to make Delhi a permanent venue earlier and strong opposition came from delegates from southern states. A good number of critics including filmmakers from Kerala were against such a move. The argument was that world cinema should reach at least the regional levels in the country. Now it would be interesting to watch the reaction once the proposal is approved.

While a decision in this matter is pending, the schedule for IFFK-2001 has been fixed and this will be held from March 29 to April 5. At the first press conference by the filmmaker and now Chairman of the Film Academy, Sri Adoor Gopalakrishnan more details of the annual film festival was released. This is the seventh year of IFFK. The festival is partly competitive in the sense that a section of the event will have entries to compete for the title 'Swarna Chakoram' given to the best film. The prize money has been enhanced to Rs 10,000,00/- from this year. Another award 'Rajatha Chakoram' for the best Asian director (Rs 3 lakh) has been added from this year. Films from European countries are not included in the competitive section. Sri Adoor is of the opinion that the higher prize money would attract more participation from African, Asian, and Latin American directors and subsequently raise the status of the festival. He also hopes the festival will have a serious nature if a fee is charged from the delegates.

Adoor has some academic plans for which a sum of Rs 23 crores will be earmarked in the next five years. Film museum, film appreciation courses (for university students) advanced programs for the filmmakers, are some of the activities chalked out for implementation.