PANAJI: A total of 53 award-winning short films and documentaries will be screened at the five-day Goa International Film Festival of documentary, short and animation films to be inaugurated on Saturday.

The film festival is jointly organised by the Films Division, Government of India, with the Goa Kala Academy and the State Directorate of Information & Publicity. Apart from the 53 films of the Film division, around 26 selected short films from Goa will be screened at the festival. The films range from one-and-a-half minute to 74 minutes duration.

"This is one of our projects aimed at imbibing the film culture in Goa," Pandurang Phaldesai, Member Secretary, Kala Academy, told The Hindu on Thursday. With the State becoming the permanent venue for the prestigious International Film Festival of India (IFFI) a couple of years ago, the raging debate in the country's film circles over lack of a "film culture" in this tiny State has inspired the State-owned Kala Academy, the repository of art, culture and music, to undertake several film festivals and other film-related programmes and projects.

The Goa Film Society, a nodal agency for local film clubs, was floated by the Kala Academy ahead of the last IFFI edition, said Mr. Phaldesai. The Society was inaugurated by renowned film maker Adoor Gopalkrishnan which was followed by a festival of his famous films.

The Kala Academy, which is actively co-associated with the organisation of IFFI along with Entertainment Society of Goa, has also organised festivals like Brazilian film festival, Children's film festival to encourage film culture in the State.

Actors Isha Koppikar, Nisha Joshi and film maker Pankaj Parashar would be the guests for the festival inaugural. Veteran film editor from Goa V.K. Naik, who was a close associate of legendary film maker V. Shantaram and Mr. Les Menezes will be felicitated during the festival.

The festival will open with the award winning films "The Little Terrorist" by Ashwin Kumar and Bulgarian film "Whose Is This Song" by Adela Peeva.

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