Assamese film-award festival begins on a high note

Guwahati, Sep 7 (UNI) Braving inclement weather, the glitterati of the state's entertainment world assembled here today as Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi inaugurated the first Assam State Film-Award Festival'07.

This was the government's second attempt to organise a film festival to boost its crippling industry which hogged the limelight with a slew of national and international awards.

The chief minister promised to help the film industry by waiving the entertainment tax.

The ionic Assamese film of the seventies ''Chameli Memsahib'' was screened with the hero George Baker being present.

''The festival will be held from September 7-15 with the awards to be given away on the concluding day,'' Cultural Affairs Minister Gautam Bora informed mediaperons.

Altogether 28 awards, instituted commemorating masters of the respective fields related to cinema in the state, would be given away at a glittering function. A number of critically acclaimed films from the state would be screened in two cinema halls during the festival, the minister added.

Revived after a gap of seven years, the film award festival was held in 2005 and it has been a biennial function since then. Films released between April 2004 to December 2006 would be competing, with an expert jury deciding the winners in three broad categories--feature film, short film and documentary.

UNI