Professionals should select films for film festivals: Adoor

Panaji, Nov 27 (UNI) Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Adoor Gpopalakrishnan today opined that professionals like well-known critics and filmmakers should be involved in selecting films for the film festivals.

Addressing newsmen here at the International Film Festival 2008 venue, he said " iff someone has never seen a good film in his whole life, how is it possible that he can be in a committee to select films.?" Pointing out that the selection committee for films should consist of only professionals, he said "it is not that anybody representing a region or any other organisations can be part of the selection committee." "Our film festival organisers should have to learn a lot from other film festivals," Mr Adoor said. Moreover if one had to get good films for showing, one should have to go to the filmmakers and producers rather than wait for them to come, he said and added "there is nothing wrong in paying fee-for getting the best." About the Goa film festivals, he said the projection of films was the best in the country in respect to sound and other techniques. No other place can boast of such quality projection.

"Even in my home town Kerala where I was part of the International film festival I could see such a great projection. But the selection of pictures in Kerala is professional," he said.

He also stated that there should be a question and answer section immediately after the screening as it would give a platform for the audience to interact with the filmmakers. "In other film festivals outside the country, this practice is in vogue. But when there is interaction after one or two days of film screening it is tiring as the director or the filmmaker has to explain everything about it to a fresh audience," he said and added that from the coming years it would be better if the film festivals had such a question and answer section soon after the screening.

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