The celebration of world cinema, IFFI 2015 begins; 5 highlights of the films to be screened this year

Setting a benchmark of showcasing exceptional films from the world cinema, the International Film Festival of India-2015 (IFFI), kicked off in Goa on 20 November.

And amid all thing cinematic, it is also all set to screen a stellar line-up of official Academy Award entries from 26 countries.

The festival will also feature 120 premieres in different sections, which will represent spectacular international films, according to an IFFI release.

Here are the highlights of the films to be screened in the festival.

1. Argentina's Oscar entry and this year's biggest Argentinean box office hit, The Clan (El Clan) will be the Closing Film of IFFI 2015. The film has recently won Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film festival.

2. This year, out of 15 films in the International Competition, five films are official Oscar entries from different countries. The list includes Colombia's El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent) directed by Ciro Guerra, France's Mustang, directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven, Germany's Oscar entry Im Labyrinth des Schweigens (Labyrinth of Lies), directed by Giulio Ricciarelli, Iceland's Oscar entry Rams, directed by Grimur Hakonarson and Serbia's Goran Radovanovic helmed Enclave.

3. Other Oscar entries that will be screened at the festival include Chaitanya Tamhane's Court from India, Anna Muylaert's Que Horas Ela Volta? (The Second Mother) from Brazil, Nikita Mikhalkov's Solnechnyy Udar from Russia, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Nie Yin Niang from Taiwan and Patricio Guzman's El boton de nacar from Chile.

4. Continuing the legacy of screening the world-class films, the festival this year will be featuring 120 premieres in different sections including - International Competition, Cinema of the world, Masterstrokes and Retrospective.

5. Some of the films that will be premiered exclusively in the festival include Ciro Guerra's El abrazo de la serpiente from Colombia, Amir-Hossein Saghafi's The Man who became a Horse from Iran, Mai Masri's 3000 Nights from Palestine, Peter Greenaway's Eisenstein In Guanajuato from Mexico, Aleksandr Melnik's Territoriya from Russia among others.

The 46th edition of IIFI, is going to be a 10-day fest from 20-30 November, and it has been organised by Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in collaboration with Government of Goa and Entertainment Society of Goa.

(With inputs from PTI)