The 27th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), which was supposed to take place from January 7 to 14, has been called off in the wake of the present Covid situation in West Bengal. The decision comes a day after it was announced that KIFF would be a scaled-down affair with the authorities deciding to hold the usually grand inaugural function in the virtual mode.
West Bengal Minister of State for Culture Indranil Sen had told a press meet on Tuesday that there would be 50 per cent occupancy at the 10 venues in the city where KIFF would be held. But now the film festival has been cancelled altogether.
The ten venues were the three auditoria in the Nandan complex, Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha, two auditoria of Nazrul Tirtha, Rabindra Okakura Bhavan, Chalachitra Satabarsha Bhavan, and Kolkata Information Centre Conference Hall.
“We will organise the 27th edition of KIFF on the lines of the 26th one when the festival had to be stripped off its grandeur that was seen till 2019. The halls will not accommodate more than 50 per cent of their total capacity during any screening – either special screening or for the film-loving audiences,” Sen had said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was supposed to inaugurate the festival on the virtual mode from the state secretariat on January 7 and Satyajit Ray’s classic ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ was scheduled to screen as the inaugural film at Rabindra Sadan with 50 per cent capacity.
Total 161 films, including 46 from 41 foreign countries, were scheduled to screen in 200 shows on the eight days of the film festival.
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