National award-winning film The Secret Life Of Frogs to be screened at 7th Woodpecker festival

The theme of the seventh edition of the Woodpecker International Film Festival (WIFF) is '67 Films to Know Your World'. Once again the festival brings hard-hitting contemporary issues to the big screen. Films from 14 countries on issues ranging from environmental challenges to human trafficking, LGBTQ rights, public health, migration, and art and culture will be screened.

Among the films to be showcased are the documentaries The Monks Who Won The Grammy by Aparna Sanyal, Coral Woman by Priya Thuvassery, Womeniya by Aaksh Arun, Aayi Gayi by Anandana Kapur, Gyamo: Queen Of The Mountains by Gautam Pandey and Doel Trivedy, The Death Of Us by Vani Subramanian, Daughters Of The Polo God by Roopa Barua, and the recent National award-winner The Secret Life Of Frogs by Ajay Bedi and Vijay Bedi.

The Odia film Kokoli by Snehasis Das, along with the Punjabi film Ranj by Sunit Sinha, will also be screened. Kamakhya Narayan Singh's Hindi film, Bhor, will close the festival.

WIFF encourages filmmakers by presenting awards to filmmakers who focus on alternative ways of filmmaking and experiment with new ideas and issues. The award in each thematic category will be presented in a gala ceremony on the final day.

Speaking about the festival, founder-director Rao Narender Yadav said, "Woodpecker International Film Festival believes in showcasing the ‘real world’ on the big screen. This year also we have diverse stories from different parts of the world on issues that are of critical importance to everyone. Be it violence against women by ISIS, condition of Rohingya women, rise of artificial intelligence, exciting new discoveries from the natural world or issues related to the LGBT community, through WIFF we want to bring them in the public domain."

The festival, launched in 2013, is chaired by veteran actor Avijit Dutt. Filmmaker Dibyajeevan Mohapatra is the deputy director. The upcoming edition will be held at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi from 29 November to 1 December.