Physical edition of 19th Pune International Film Festival to be held from 2 to 9 December

After a long delay on account of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the physical edition of the 19th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) will finally be held from 2 to 9 December this year.

The film festival will be held at three venues — PVR Icon at Pavillion Mall on Senapati Bapat Road, Inox at Camp, and the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) auditorium on Law College Road.

Online registration for delegates who wish to be a part of PIFF began on 18 November and spot registration will begin on 25 November at all three venues. Spot registrations can only be done between 11am and 7:30pm.

The fee for registration is Rs600 per head. According to the festival's official website, delegates who had already registered in March can collect their new passes from the delegate registration counters. As per state government guidelines currently in force, only 50% occupancy is allowed at all the venues.

The festival was earlier scheduled to be held in March this year but the organizers decided to call off the physical edition and only continue with the virtual edition because of the second wave.

"Now that the state government has allowed cinema halls to reopen, the festival is being held in its physical format," PIFF founder-director Jabbar Patel told The Hindu newspaper.

The opening film at the festival is The Woman by Otgonzorig Bathchuluun.

The festival's Marathi Competition section will see seven films competing for the top prize: Godakaath, directed by Gajendra Ahire; Firastya, directed by Vitthal Machindra Bhosale; Fun’era, directed by Vivek Dubey; Poraga Majetay, directed by Makarand Mane; Kalokhachya Parambhya, directed by Makarand Anaspure; June (2021), directed by Vaibhav Khisti and Suhrud Godbole; and Tak-Tak, directed by Vishal Kudale.