Two Indian films -- director Sagar Puranik's Kannada film 'Dollu' and Vivek Rajendra Dubey's Marathi film 'Funeral' -- are among the nine films that have been shortlisted for the debut competition at the 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI).Announcing the lineup of films for the competition on Saturday, the organisers of the film festival said in a statement that the festival had been the launchpad for several filmmakers over the years.The idea driving this competition is to showcase the best first-time filmmakers of the year. The 52nd IFFI is being held in Panjim, Goa, from November 20 to November 28.
The seven other films that have made it to the line up are Ruben Sainz's Spanish/Brazilian/Portuguese film 'Magoado'; Arash Aneessee's 'Maman' (Iran); Dimitris Kanellopoulos's 'Pack of Sheep' (Greece); Janno Jurgens's Estonian/Russian 'Rain'; Laura Lehmus's 'Sweet Disaster' (German), Simon Farriol's 'The Wealth of the World' (Spain); and Argentine-Swiss filmmaker Mari Alessandrini's multinational production, 'Mapudungun.Just last month, the Kannada film 'Dollu', which features newcomers Karthik Mahesh and Nidhi Hegde in the lead roles, and named after the popular folk dance form Dollu Kunnitha, won the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for the Best Kannada Film at the Innovative International Film Festival in Bengaluru.