Ashok Saraf to be awarded for his contribution to the Indian Cinema at 19th PIFF

Ashok Saraf to receive PIFF Distinguished Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Indian cinema 

Jyothi Venkatesh

Veteran film and television actor Ashok Saraf will be honoured with the ‘PIFF Distinguished Award’ for his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema. He will be presented with the award on the inaugural day of the 19th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) being held between December 2nd and 9th. State’s Cultural Affairs Minister Amit Deshmukh would be the Chief Guest for the inauguration function. This was announced by Dr. Jabbar Patel, Festival Director of PIFF. Ravi Gupta and Samar Nakhate from the organizing committee of PIFF were also present on the occasion.

The Pune International Film Festival, which also happens to be the official film festival of Maharashtra Government was initially scheduled to be held in March 2021. However, it was postponed due to the outbreak of Coronavirus. Over 127 curated films from 57 countries shall be screened at multiple venues including PVR at Pavillion Mall on Senapati Bapat Road, Inox – Camp and the NFAI Auditorium. The inaugural session shall take place at Anna Bhau Sathe Auditorium on the Satara Road at 5:00pm on December 2nd.

The theme of the film this year to acknowledge the contribution of corona warriors thus representatives of various governmental organizations would be felicitated during the inauguration ceremony. The dignitaries who will be felicitated include Murlidhar Mohol, Mayor of Pune City, Amitabh Gupta, Police Commissioner of Pune, Vikram Kumar, Municipal Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation, Dr. Rajesh Deshmukh, District Collector and Dr. Murlidhar Tambe, Dean of the David Sassoon Hospital.

Dr. Jabbar Patel announcing the details of 19th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF), (L-R) Ravi Gupta, Dr. Jabbar Patel and Samar Nakhate.

The Opening Film for this edition of PIFF would be ‘The Women’ from Mangolia. It will be screened at the venue of inauguration after the inauguration function gets over and at the NFAI auditorium on December 2nd.

The jury for this edition of PIFF would comprise of A. Sreekar Prasad (India), Andrej Kosak (Slovenia), Antonio La Camera (Italy), Goran Radovanovic (Belgrade), Gyorgy Baron (Budapest), Luong Dinh Dung (Vietnam), Mania Akbari (Iran) and Suman Mukhopadhyay (India).

Out of the 127 films from 57 different countries that will screened during the 19th Pune International Film Festival include opening film 1, world Competition 14, Marathi Competition 7, Student Competition 20, Global Cinema 57, International Retrospective : Kim Ki Duk 4, Indian Retrospective : Soumitra Da 3, Indian Cinema 11, Marathi Cinema Today 6 and Tribute 4 films.

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