The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), the sixth edition of which concluded recently at Thiruvananthapuram, is of course the most popular and reputed film festival in the country next to the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The festival that started in 1995 has already gained momentum in International circuits and is nothing short of a feast for film-lovers.

And it is no small wonder that the Capital city of Kerala started preparing itself for the 6th IFFK in top gear much before it was formally inaugurated on the 30th of March. And a really spectacular event the inaugural ceremony was, a fitting start to so awaited an event. Well begun is half done! That's what the folks at the Kerala Chalachithra Academy, the organizers of the festival, seem to believe.

IFFK 2001 was formally inaugurated on March 30, 2001 by Mr T.K.Ramakrishnan, the Kerala Minister for Culture at a grand ceremony held at Nishagandhi open-air auditorium. Popular film star and teenage- sensation Kunchacko Boban and actress Geethu Mohandas anchored the inaugural ceremony, which included a music-cum-dance show presented by MACTA, the Malayalam Cine Technicians Association.

Following the inaugural ceremony, attended by luminaries from the film-world and other distinguished guests, was screened the inaugural film- the Brazilian film Oriundi, directed by Ricardo Bravo.Just before and also after the inaugural ceremony, film buffs were seen busily noting down the film-schedule for the first two days displayed at the media-centre on the premises of the Kanakakkunnu Palace grounds.

For, they were to plan and rewrite their routine for the next few days. And from the morning of 31st March, these film-enthusiasts could be seen at the various venues in the city, making the most of festival, their own festival. While the New Theatre was the main Venue of the festival, films were also screened at Kairali, Sree, Kalabhavan and Sreekumar Theaters.

Tagore Theatre was set apart for screenings in the Malayalam Homage section. Remya Theatre was meant for ticketed screening for the public while Nishagandhi open-air auditorium was marked for public shows in the evening.In the course of a weak, i.e., from March 31st to April 6th, over 200 films from various countries were screened at the various theatres and these were included in various sections.

In addition to competition films based on the theme of 'humanism' from Asia, African and Latin American Countries, films were classified into various section, namely World Cinema (Long and Short), Retrospectives, Homage Section, Contemporary Indian Cinema, Malayalam Cinema Now, A Decade of German Films, Women- A French Package, Young Iranian Short Films, Dogme Films, Documentaries, Video Films, Animation Films and Film School Films. In the Retrospective section were shown films by noted Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf and films by Cuban master filmmaker Thomas Alea.

And since many were the fans in Kerala of these filmmakers, Cinemas exhibiting their films were thronged by large crowds. In the Homage section, films by Ritwik Ghatak like Meghe Daka Tara, SubarnaRekha etc were screened which, it seemed, were still popular among the film lovers of Kerala, who had got the chance of seeing Ghatak films again and again. Films in the World Cinema Section and Competition section like Maraal (Iran), This is My Moon (Sri Lanka), Ali Zaoua (Morocco), Journey through the Body (Argentina) etc attracted a large number of film lovers and the New theatre, where these were screened was full despite being one of the biggest cinema halls in the city.

Films from Germany and France too had their share of attraction.Indian films and contemporary Malayalam Cinema too got the representation that they deserved. In addition to Ghatak films, films of the late actors Balan K.Nair and Bahadur too were screened in the Tagore theatre. Almost all the Malayalam films that featured in the State and National awards were screened. M.T's Oru Cheru Punchiry, Subramanyam Shantakumar's Mankolangal, Jayaraj's Shaantam, Lenin Rajendran's Mazha, K.P.Kumaran's Thotram and Pavithran's Kuttappan Saakshi were there. M.P.Sukumaran Nair's Shayanam couldn't be screened.

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