Lights On for the Biggest Film Festival in Kochi

• 24 Oct 2015
• Maria John
• Features

The All Lights Film Festival to take off on November 15th with Mohanlal, Kamal Hassan, Manju Warrier, Kalki Koechlin and more.
It’s Cinema! It’s Kochi! It’s Indywood!
Santa is getting ready to knock our doors with his Christmas surprise and the celebration mood has already swept across Kochi in advance to celebrate the biggest film carnival the state is to witness till date. Kochi, the queen of the Arabian Sea is in a festive mood as the reel fete – All Lights India International Film Festival and South Asia’s biggest film market – Indywood Film Market are just around the corner! The city, one of the fastest growing film hubs in the country will soon wear its festive colours this misty November with a brilliant makeover as per international standards. The All Lights India International Film Festival and Indywood Film Market organized by All Lights Film Society have already created a buzz globally. Both these events which will be held from November 15-19, are overlooked with great enthusiasm by the global film fraternity since the untapped potential of Indian filmdom is getting ready to overflow to the vast sea of celluloid dreams and achievements.

The newly launched multiplex in the city, Cinepolis (Centre Square Mall) will be the venue for All Lights India International Film Festival (ALIIFF), which will have more than 120 screenings in various sections such as Features, Shorts, Documentaries and Documentary Features. Unlike the other film festivals, ALIIFF will showcase the new films from around the globe to its audience.
Celebrity FiestaMaking the festival, a high profile filmy event, a long list of celebrities has been roped by ALIIFF. The complete actor Mohanlal, the phenomenal actor Kamal Hassan, stylish actor Daggubati Venkatesh, National award winner for acting Prosenjit Chatterjee, Subodh Bhave, Bollywood’s distinctively fresh face Kalki Koechlin, the ravishing beauty from South Indian Cinema Nikki Galrani, and actress par excellence Manju Warrrier  are so far confirmed to be the ambassadors and endorsers of these spectacular events – All Lights India International Film Festival (ALIIFF) and Indywood Film Market (IFM).

Manju Warrier is the festival’s face for ‘Cinema for Women’ a special category showcase completely dedicated for films having women centric plots and themes. More celebs will be soon included in the line up. The promotion and sale of regional contents in international market, exchange of local technologies and manpower, global networking of major production houses and collaborative ventures making use of skilled yet inexpensive native manpower, local talents and regional technology are aimed by these events. Moreover, as per the proposals of project Indywood, 10,000 multiplex theatres will be opened across the country within 5 years. The initiative is expected to bring back the people who were forced to keep aloof from the theatres on account of low grade facilities to witness a better viewing experience.

ALIIFF's competition categories are the following
—International Competition for Feature Films
—International Competition for Debut Directors
—International Competition for Short Films
— International Competition for Documentaries
— International Competition for Documentary Features
Apart from these another programmed section is also there for competition under the category Indywood Panorama. Selected films from 10 Indian languages will be screened in this category.The festival’s out of competition category is comprised of World Cinema, Retrospective, NETPAC Award winning films, Country focus, NRI films and Guest Industry Showcases. In addition to these, thematic showcases like – Cinema for Women, Cinema for Care, Cinema for Children and Musical movies will also be screened at the festival. Cinema for Women will have the showcases on films having women centric plots while the Cinema for Care will be screening films following the disability issues. UNESCO is the authoritative endorser of Cinema for Care. As the name indicates, the dedicated showcase Cinema for Children will be screening kid- friendly films characterised by fun, fantasy and joy. The section – Musical films are of a special genre in which the songs are interwoven into the narrative. Czech and Slovak films will be screened in the country focus section of the festival. A special section of short films from across the country will be screened at the Children's Theatre, Marine drive, Kochi.

ALIIFF- Jury Panel Iranian director Khosro Masoumi, Czech film journalist and festival programmer Radovan Holub, Actress cum director Ghazal Masoumi, Independent film maker from Israel – Dan Wolman, noted film journalist and researcher Uma da Cunha, Singaporean film maker Kan Lume, Indian writer cum director Anjali Bhushan, Asian film critic and researcher, Andronika Martonova Ratnottama Sengupta, director I.V Sashi, Rajesh Touchriver, Vinod Sukumaran,  Director Emiley Wachtel, Filmmaker Tagore Almeida, Indian actress Usha Jadhav,  and Actress cum Director Bijaya Jena  are so far confirmed to serve on the jury of All Lights India International Film Festival. This jury will select the films for the prestigious Golden Frame Awards in the festival.
Iran’s most influential director Jafar Panahi’s latest experimental feature ‘Taxi’ will open the All Lights India International Film Festival which kicks off from November 15th, 2015 with a grand opening ceremony at Hotel Le Meridien, Kochi. This would be a great opportunity for the people across the country to watch “Taxi” which was well received by critics and viewers alike during the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where it has been awarded the ‘Golden Bear’, the top prize for ‘Best Film’.

The delegate passes for ALIIFF & IFM can be booked through the official websites, www.aliiff.com and www.ifm.co.in . Also, passes can be reserved through the online platforms “BookmyShow” and “Dealgun”.With the culmination of ALIIFF & IFM, a new series of creative developments in the realm of Cinema will be carried out in the country as the fragmented film industries will be unified into numero uno under the powerful and credible brand –‘Indywood Cinema’!And as we say “WE LOVE CINEMA & WE PROMOTE CINEMA”!

Indywood Film Market
Indywood Film Market (IFM), a top notch film market that runs from November 16-18 at Hotel Le Meridien will attract big market players who look forward for co production deals with Indian Film Makers, aspiring buyers and sellers of films and several renowned industry stalwarts to Kochi. The biggest holistic film market is expected to have a turnout of 2000 delegates, and more than 100 exhibitors. The list of exhibitors includes Dolby, Auro 3D, Qube, United Merlin, Makanarium, Extravagant India, Kerala tourism and Gujarat tourism to name a few. Various film bodies and associations across India have also reserved their booths to showcase their services to the film fraternity. Apart from these, the event will also be the venue for networking parties, product launches, panel discussions and trade expos. The event aims at flourishing film business here.
ALIIFF and IFM are part of a great vision namely ‘Project Indywood’ a comprehensive plan of action created with the sole purpose of uniting the fragmented film industries of the country and thereby making it numero uno. The mastermind behind Project Indywood Mr. Sohan Roy, CEO of Aries Group, is also the concept creator and founder of All Lights India International Film Festival and Indywood Film Market. Although India is a proven potential film industry strong enough to occupy the top most position in the world for theatrical admissions and number of movies produced, India couldn’t make notable achievements in terms of revenue generation and amassing global recognition. Indian Film Industry is falling well short of Hollywood as the Indian film industry is remaining  small and as separated entities within the cultural framework formed by language, region and geographical frontiers. All Lights India International Film Festival and Indywood Film Market together aims at building a platform  to elevate Indian Cinema to the global standards.ALIIFF and IFM host a series of workshops encompassing the various aspects of the cinematic art in detail. Designed with young people in mind, ALIIFF Wokshops will feature distinguished stalwarts like Nandan Saxena & Kavitha Bahl, Jeff Rector, Anjali Bhusan, and bollywood director Kabir Khan in different sessions. In addition to these personas, Wishberry, a reward based crowdfunding popular firm will lead a session on Crowdfunding.
Another key session at ALIIFF Workshops is on Preservation and Restoration of film and video content led by Prasad EFX, a pioneer and leader in Indian Media and Entertainment world. IFM will also feature Lijo Jose Pellissery, one of the distinguished directors of Malayalam filmdom, in an interactive session. The spot light includes topics that give a thorough understanding on the current industry trends, skills and techniques we must carry forward from the past, and consider the future. In addition to these, panel discussions will also be there at IFM. Indywood makes this a perfect platform to bring together the diverse sections from the global film industry including writers, directors, producers, distributors, sales agents etc.