International Film Festival of Kerala postponed to February 2021

The 25th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will be held from 12-19 February 2021. The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy announced the postponement of the festival, which is usually held in December in Thiruvananthapuram. However, even though the dates have been announced, the decision to conduct the festival will still be subject to the prevailing situation in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The festival website has also announced that films completed between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020 are eligible and that the entry submission period is from 17 September to 31 October 2020. The organisers will publish the list of selected films on 10 December 2020.

The Hindu newspaper reported that the consensus is to organise a physical festival instead of an online one and quoted an IFFK official as saying, “If the COVID-19 situation eases by early next year and we want to organise a festival, we won't be able to do it if we don't start now. Hence, we are starting with the usual background work of calling for films and shortlisting them. In case the current situation persists, we obviously will have to postpone the festival. There are quite a few challenges with organising an online festival due to issues like piracy and limiting the geography from which the films can be accessed. This was not a major issue while organising online festivals for short films or documentaries, as the academy did recently.”

The IFFK is one of the most prestigious film festivals in India and one of the major cultural events in Kerala.