MUMBAI: A total of 120 films will be screened during the international and Indian section of Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2008 being held from 3 to 9 February. In the International Section, 44 films will be in the Competition Section and nine for the special screening whereas 54 films of the Indian category will vie in the Competition Section and 13 would be screened in the Special Category.

MIFF director Kuldeep Sinha said, “A total of 228 films were received from 37 countries for the international competition and 543 entered the Indian competition section. Final selection by the jury for the International section comprises films from 16 countries. Maharashtra Governor SM Krishna would inaugurate the Festival and Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, PR Dasmunsi will preside over.

For the first time, entries from the North East and Jammu & Kashmir filmmakers will be screened as a separate category. Another new feature this year would be the section ‘Film Memoir,’ which would show biographical films made on great film makers like Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray and Bimal Roy.

Various sections in the Festival include:

· South Africa – from the margins to the centre: A special package of films from South Africa reflecting the socio-cultural and political development of the country since the dismantling of apartheid.

· SAARC Films: Documentary & short fiction films from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives will feature in this special package.

· Films from Brazil: A package of documentary, short and animation films from Brazil made by prominent filmmakers will be featured in this package presented with the help of the Ministry of Culture, Brazil.

· Oscar Films: This will feature selected films from some Oscar winning & nominated documentary, short and animation films.

· Jury Retrospective: This section comprises films made by the Members of the Jury.

· Classics: Films of greatmasters of documentary films: This section comprises films made by great masters like Bert Haanstra, Robert J. Flaherty, Francois Truffaut, Istvan Szabo, Krystof Zanussi and Ritwik Ghatak. This package will be organised with the support of National Film Archive of India.

· Films of Second World War: This package comprises rarest film records of the Indian troops in action at various part of the world during Second World War. This will also feature the battle of Britain, Russia and other major incidents of that period. This package is being organised with the help of the armed forces film and Photo Division, Delhi.

The Festival would also showcase films on the entire spectrum of development of India made by directors of the Films Division since its inception in 1948 under Section Glimpses of Films Division on ‘Expression en Corto’ comprising the best of short films, which have been part of the Express en Corto Festival in Mexico. The Festival would also have retrospective and special package, seminars and open forum. Around 5000 delegates are expected to attend the week long Festival.