DFF favours more autonomy to ESG in conducting IFFI-2008

Panaji, Sep 10 (UNI) The Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) has favoured more autonomy to the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), in conducting the 39th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in the state in November-December this year.

This was following a meeting of a delegation led by chief minister Digambar Kamat with Information and Broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi and the DFF director Neelam Kapur in Delhi yesterday.

A fresh memorandum to this effect would be signed between the DFF and the ESG in a day or two in Delhi, for which chief executive officer of the ESG Manoj Srivastava was camping in the national capital.

With the removal of the hurdles now, the ESG, which is the nodal agency of the state government for hosting the IFFI, since Goa was declared the permanent venue in the year 2004, is poised to handle three sections - India Premiers, Country Focus and Retrospectives- independently.

Briefing mediapersons after his arrival here from Delhi today, the chief minister said the DFF had also agreed to ensure that the ESG handled the proven Datacal software for registration of the IFFI delegates.

Meanwhile, in order to encourage short film producers, the ESG had decided to organise the ''Short Film Centre'', as a fringe activity during the IFFI, the registration process for which was underway here.

It might be recalled that Goa government, with the experience it had gained in conducting the IFFI events since 2004, had planned to organise the future festivals on its own since 2008, without depending on the directives or collaboration of the DFF.

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