Globally acclaimed for its focus on promoting issue-based cinema, Woodpecker International Film festival (WIFF) is inviting entries for its 7th annual edition. The festival strives to bring the pressing contemporary issues on the big screen and have a wide range of categories for filmmakers including environment, social challenges, gender, disability, refugees, livelihood, water etc.
According to the Founder-Director of the festival Rao Narender Yadav, “WIFF believes in showcasing meaningful cinema. Over the years, WIFF has emerged as a popular and credible platform for independent filmmakers to showcase their work, and it continues to be one of the much awaited film festivals in New Delhi. Year-after-year the festival brings the best of Indian and global issue-based cinema for film lovers and showcases an interesting line-up of films and documentaries.”
For the 2019 edition, the festival organisers have added several news film categories, which are, Terrorism, crime & violence, LGBTQ, Food and travel, Religion and Spirituality, and Public Health. “The festival helps in initiating conversations on challenges of the contemporary world. That’s why we make sure that the festival has space for latest issues of concern and importance,” adds yadav.
The festival is supported by veteran actor and theatre personality Avijit Dutt, who is also the chairperson of the festival board. The Board has several other noted personalities including Ashish Chopra, culinary historian, Seema Kohli, veteran artist, Akanksha Sood, National-award winning filmmaker, Lima Rosalind, environmentalist, Rakesh Mathur, hospitality sector veteran, and senior journalists Vivek Sinha and Abhinav Garg.
Sharing about the reason behind launching WIFF Yadav says, “Woodpecker International Film Festival (WIFF) was started in 2013. It was an extremely important year for the Indian film Industry as it marked the completion of 100-years of India Cinema. There were lot of festivals and events that were being organised on this occasion in India as well as abroad. However, almost all these events were focussing only on Bollywood ! None of these were celebrating the diversity of cinema that India has produced in the last 100-years, which includes short-films, documentaries and experimental cinema. Woodpecker International Film Festival was thus a tribute to the Indian cinema for its ability to nurture diverse genres of films and filmmaking traditions in the country.”
The 7th annual edition of WIFF will be held from November 28- Dec 1, 2019 in New Delhi. Filmmakers can send entries till July 31 to participate in the festival.