The concluding ceremony of the 15th IFFK will be conducted at the Nishagandhi Auditorium today. In a week’s span, the festival has managed to screen 203 films from 83 countries in theatres around Trivandrum city.

The concluding ceremony of IFFK will host the distribution of awards, the ‘Suvarna Chakoram’ or Golden Crow Pheasant and the ‘Rajata Chakoram’ or the Silver Crow Pheasant awards to the best movies among the 203. There are other awards also: Audience Prize, Best Debut Film Award, Netpac Award and FIPRESCI Award among the many. Minister M.A Baby will present the Golden Crow Pheasant to the winning film.

The award ceremony will commence at 6.00pm and Mani Ratnam and his wife Suhasini Mani are among the Chief Guests at the functions.

IFFK commenced 10th December with Kalabhavan theatre screening the movie ‘Cameroon Love Letter’. ‘Please do not Disturb’ was the inaugural film. Almost 9,000 visitors roamed the venues of the film festival, making the most out of the opportunity to get to watch close to 4 movies in a single day, all under the same pass.

Perhaps the highlight of the IFFK festival was the event of the screening of Shyamaprasad’s ‘Elektra’, where a crowd ravaged its way into the theatre in their effort to grab a seat for the screening. It has yet to be seen if the movie is successful in repeating its historical success at the IFFK event, when it is actually released in the theatres.

The IFFK event in Trivandrum has been criticized for its lack of proper management. Though the number of theatres has been increased to ten this time around, there was no system in place to ensure that the crowd drawn to the festival is equally disseminated to all the screenings.

The one day auto and taxi strike in Trivandrum also adversely affected the event on the particular day, as audiences were not able to make it to the venue without transportation. IFFK delegates, especially foreigners were affected by the strike. IFFK officials had requested the unions organizing the strike to exempt at least auto-rickshaws from the strike, but were not successful in their attempt.