The International Film Festival of Kashmir (IFFK) 2015 Monday begun with the screening of Iranian short film, Waskat and J&K (Gilgit-Baltistan) film, Stunning.The festival is organized by Experimental Moving Images and Theatre Association (XMITA). First day’s film screenings were held at Conference Hall of Cultural Academy, Lal Mandi followed by the Opening Press Conference. The main screening event will be held at Tagore Hall on December 22 and 23.The film festival, which is fifth edition of International Film Festival of Kashmir (IFFK) is marking XMITA’s 11th anniversary with longest-ever lineup of movies across the globe.“Over two days starting Monday, 40 movies in over 10 international languages will be screened at a festival expected to attract some 2000 viewers.
The selected films belong to seventeen countries including Iran, Russia, UK, USA, Phillipines, Turkey, Mexico and India,” said Ali Emran, the Festival Curator. He was flanked by X-mita chairperson Yaqout Mushtaq, local filmmaker Gul Reyaz and Mumbai based filmmaker 'Majid Imtiyaz' .Emran said the highlights of the IFFK 2015 include 8 World Premiers, 7 International Premiers along with Asian and Local Premiers.The IFFK began in 2007 which has since grown from a relatively small gathering in a basement to the largest festival in Srinagar.The films have been shortlisted by a selection committee comprising of renowned people from film industry, school of Cinema Studies and theatre including after untiring efforts.The committee has shortlisted Forty-four (40) world-class films from all genres out of about 400 entries from more than 50 countries.The films include seven (7) World Premieres, fifteen (15) South Asian Premieres, two (2) International Premieres, One Asian Premier and One Indian Premier.