Panaji: Filmmaker Aanand Rai has been appointed jury chairperson for the international competition at the 57th International Film Festival of India (Iffi), scheduled in Goa from Nov 20 to 28.Known for blending warmth with a distinctly Indian sensibility, Rai’s notable films include ‘Tanu Weds Manu’, ‘Raanjhanaa’, and ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’. He also won the Best Direction Award at the 72nd National Film Awards for ‘Statue Of Unity: Ekta Ka Prateek’.Rai will head an international jury of film professionals evaluating titles in the festival’s premier competitive section. The panel includes Romania’s Bogdan Mureșanu, writer-director of ‘The New Year That Never Came’, which won Best Film in the Orizzonti section at Venice.Also on the jury is Argentine director-screenwriter Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière, whose debut feature ‘Mamá, mamá, mamá’ premiered at the 2020 Berlinale and received a special mention in Generation Kplus.Thailand’s Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke joins as writer-director of ‘A Useful Ghost’ and ‘The Bovine Comedy’. Colombia’s María Alejandra Rojas, an acclaimed sound designer, is credited on ‘The Blue Trail’, ‘The Tuba Thieves’, and ‘Frida’.
