Festival director Suraj Tiwari, whose maiden directorial venture "I am Zero" was widely appreciated, told : "We have received entries from some 10 countries till now. The final screening will have films from India and six other counties. These short films, animations, documentaries and music videos are based on contemporary concerns and social causes."
The jury will make the final selection for awards in different categories. In addition, an award honouring Dada Saheb Phalke and another dedicated to Dada Saheb's wife Saraswatibai, the first female technician of India, will be given to a female technician every year, starting this year for contribution to Indian cinema.
Tiwari said during the three-day festival, a large number of film producers, representative of various production houses, writers, actors from different countries will visit the Taj city.
"In the foreign films category Rajibul from Bangladesh, documentary of Navneet from UK, film of Murjani from Canada, film of Yuvi from Switzerland, film of L.D.N from France and films from all states of India are going to be screened," said the organisers.
Actor Raza Murad will inaugurate the film festival, and the opening speech will be delivered by Dada Saheb Phalke's grandson Chandrasekhar. Festival will have a master talk show by Sushma Siromani, a cinematography workshop by Vipin Goje and other special programmes by lyricist and writer Sudhakar Sharma. The curtain-raiser of the festival will be opened by Bollywood writer Manoj Santoshi.
( With inputs from IANS )