Amol Palekar to be chief guestThiruvananthapuram: Veteran actor-director Amol Palekar will be the chief guest during the opening ceremony of 21st edition of International Film Festival of Kerala, which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on December 9.
Renowned Czech filmmaker Jiri Menzel would be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony, Minister for Cultural Affairs and Cinema, A K Balan told reporters here.
"Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the festival at the Nishagandhi auditorium here. Actor-director Amol Palekar will attend the event as chief guest," he said.
Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac, MPs Suresh Gopi and Shashi Tharoor, K Muraleedharan MLA and Mayor V K Prashanth would also take part in the inaugural ceremony.
As many as 185 films from 62 countries would be screened under various categories in the week-long festival, scheduled to conclude on December 16.
Fifteen movies will be screened in the international competition category, while 81 films would be screened in the world cinema section, he said.
The screening would be held in 13 select theatres in the state capital.
As many as 16,767 delegates have already registered for the event and over 11,000 of them had remitted the fees, he said.
