MUMBAI: The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) weekend has traveled across continents from London, Yorkshire and Amsterdam in Europe, Johannesburg and Sun City in South Africa and Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai and Bangkok in Asia since the last nine years.

It may be recalled that on 2 February, 2009, Businessofcinema.com was the first to report about Macao being the venue of the 10th year celebration of the IIFA. The formal announcement was made on 28 April at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai by IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan who declared The Venetian, Macao as the venue for the IIFA weekend, which will take place from 11 – 13 June.

The announcement ceremony started by observing a moment of silence for the late actor Firoz Khan.

The event also saw the presence of some of the IIFA Advisory Board members like film maker Ramesh Sippy, Manmohan Shetty and Shyam Shroff, director of IIFA Sabbas Joseph, Idea Cellular chief marketing officer Pradeep Shrivastava, Panasonic India CEO Daizo Ito, Star Plus EVP and general manager Keertan Adhyantaya, Las Vegas Sands Corp Asian Region (parent company of The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel) president Stephen Weaver and Macao Government Tourist Office deputy director Helena de Senna Fernandes.

Weaver said, "We are very proud to be the host of this great event and playing a role in bringing IIFA to Macao for the first time. We look forward to opening up to this wonderful market of India since India is an important target market. We represent much more than a hotel and Macao is much more than just another destination. At The Venetian we have tried to create the very sort of platform what the cinema industry is about. As cinema seems to transport people from their everyday lives we too sought to create a destination that allows people to be transported from their everyday lives for 2 to 3 days to perhaps a week. The Venetian Macao is a destination resort anchored by many elements."

Fernandes said, "We are pleased to have the 10th IIFA celebrations held in Macau this year as it also coincides with the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region of China. While giving our full support to the Venetian Macao, our local host, we take this as an opportunity to showcase Macao as a destination where the glamour of India’s film industry meets Macao’s very own blend of culture and excitement. In the last few years we have seen approximately eighty two thousand visitors from India and we hope after this we will see a lot more Indians making Macao their holiday destination."

Speaking to Businessofcinema.com Fernandes said, "IIFA has chosen Macao because it has very good logistic property at the same time it also has a lot of history to it. Macao though has not seen a lot of Indian cinema as yet so with the IIFA weekend it will create a lot of buzz. We also look forward to a lot of the people of Macao coming to see what Indian cinema is all about and see a lot of exchange in the future."

Shrivastava added, "We are proud to be associated with IIFA since the last 4 years and this year is special since it’s the 10th year celebrations. IIFA brings people from different continents together similarly Idea subscribers stay connected to each other. We are looking forward to a great IIFA Award Weekend."

Continuing with it’s pledge to environmental causes, by yet again hosting an eco-friendly awards function, IIFA has teamed up with Panasonic which have launched a range of eco-friendly products. Speaking on it’s first association with IIFA Ito said, "Our association as the green sponsor provides us the platform to communicate our philosophy of Eco Ideas that champions the cause of a greener environment. As Bollywood is creating global footprint, we aim to partner with the industry stalwarts and create awareness about the issue of climate change.”

Joseph added, “IIFA is also committed to addressing the very pertinent issue of Global Warming, which is affecting every human being. This campaign started at IIFA Yorkshire in 2007 and taking it forward this year IIFA partners with several global organizations to use this credible global platform to address these issues and make people aware of it.”

Bachchan said, "On every trip that I made outside India I noticed the amount of interest the people had on Indian cinema, I was walking the streets of Paris and I would suddenly hear someone calling me not Amitabh but Vijay which was one of the characters I played in my films. They were not from my country, not my colour, did not speak my language but they spoke about Indian cinema and that was what surprised me. This prompted me to accept this form of taking an entire organization out of India and celebrating in a region where there are many people who know about Indian films."

The nominations for the IDEA IIFA Awards 2009 were also announced by Bachchan. They are as follows:

The nominations for the IDEA IIFA Awards are as follows:

1 Best Film
A Wednesday
Dostana
Ghajini
Jodhaa Akbar
Race
Rock On !!

2 Direction
A.R. Murugadoss – Ghajini
Madhur Bhandarkar – Fashion
Abhishek Kapoor – Rock On !!
Ashutosh Gowariker – Jodhaa Akbar
Neeraj Pandey – A Wednesday

3 Performance in a Leading Role (Male)
Aamir Khan – Ghajini
Abhishek Bachchan – Dostana
Hrithik Roshan – Jodhaa Akbar
Naseeruddin Shah – A Wednesday
Shah Rukh Khan – Rab Ne Bana di Jodi

4 Performance in a Leading Role (Female)
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan – Jodhaa Akbar
Asin – Ghajini
Bipasha Basu – Race
Katrina Kaif – Singh Is Kinng
Priyanka Chopra – Fashion

5 Performance in a Supporting Role (Male)
Abhishek Bachchan – Sarkar Raj
Arjun Rampal – Rock On !!
Irrfan Khan – Mumbai Meri Jaan
Sonu Sood – Jodhaa Akbar
Vinay Pathak – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

6 Performance in a Supporting Role (Female)
Bipasha Basu – Bachna Ae Haseeno
Ila Arun – Jodhaa Akbar
Kangana Ranawat – Fashion
Kirron Kher – Dostana
Shahana Goswami – Rock On !!

7 Performance in a Comic Role
Abhishek Bachchan – Dostana
Anil Kapoor – Race
Rajpal Yadav – Bhoothnath
Shreyas Talpade – Welcome To Sajjanpur
Tejpal Singh – Jodhaa Akbar
Tushar Kapoor – Golmaal Returns

8 Performance in a Negative Role
Akshaye Khanna – Race
Imran Khan – Kidnap
Paresh Rawal – Oye Lucky Lucky Oye
Pradeep Rawat – Ghajini
Visswa Badola – Jodhaa Akbar

9 Music Direction
A.R. Rahman – Ghajini
A.R. Rahman – Jodhaa Akbar
Pritam – Race
Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy – Rock On !!
Vishal Shekhar – Dostana

10 Best Story
Abhishek Kapoor – Rock On !!
Haidar Ali – Jodhaa Akbar
Madhur Bhandarkar, Anuradha Tewari and Ajay Monga – Fashion
Neeraj Pandey – A Wednesday
Shiraz Ahmed – Race

11 Lyrics
Anvita Dutt Guptan- Khuda Jaane – Bachna Ae Haseeno
Jaideep Sahni – Haule Haule – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Javed Akhtar – Jashan-e-Baharaa – Jodhaa Akbar
Javed Akhtar – Socha hai – Rock On !!
Sameer- Pehli Nazar Mein – Race

12 Playback Singer (Male )
Atif Aslam- Pehli Nazar Mein – Race
Farhan Akhtar – Socha hai – Rock On !!
Javed Ali – Jashan-e-Baharaa – Jodhaa Akbar
KK- Khuda Jaane – Bachna Ae Haseeno
Sukhwinder Singh- Haule Haule – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

13 Playback Singer (Female)
Bela Shinde – Man Mohana – Jodhaa Akbar
Monali- Zara Zara Touch Me Race
Shilpa Rao- Khuda Jaane – Bachna Ae Haseeno
Shreya Ghoshal- Teri Ore – Singh Is Kinng
Sunidhi Chauhan- Desi Girl – Dostana