BIFFes: Get ready for the 11th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival

The Bengaluru International film fest will hit the city for its 11th edition at Vidhana Soudha Banquet Hall on Feb 21. Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy will inaugurate the event.

Bengaluru is all set to witness the 11th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival. The grand opening will be held at the Vidhana Soudha Banquet Hall on February 21. The fest will be inaugurated by Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. Iranian director Payman Maadi's Bomb, A Love Story will be the opening movie at the festival this year.

The festival will showcase 225 films from across 60 nations. Actor Anant Nag and Bollywood filmmaker Rahul Rawail will guests of honour at the inauguration, that will be followed by a melange of cultural extravaganza.

The highlights of the festival include competitions in the Asian, India and Kannada categories, the contemporary cinema of the world and a retrospective of films by Shaji N. Karun and Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.

In addition to that, the films that were critically acclaimed at film festivals in Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Mumbai, Goa and Kerala will also be screened. The festival will pay homage to Mrinal Sen, MH Ambareesh, CH Lokanath and MN Vyasa Rao.

Besides regular screenings at Orion Mall in Rajajinagar, the fest will feature an array of workshops and seminars on filmmaking.

Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi, Australian scriptwriter Claire Dobbin, Iranian filmmaker Ali Ebrahimi and film critics from Japan, Israel, Netherlands and Turkey will be part of the event.

The closing event will be held at Vidhana Soudha and will be graced by Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala.

Tale of the Sea, an Iranian movie directed by Bahman Farmanara will be the closing film.

Last year the Bengaluru International Film Festival screened over 200 movies from 50 countries.