Cinema lovers in the city for the first time would be able to enjoy 219 handpicked movies from across the globe on single screens and multiplexes next week during the 29 edition of Kolkata International Film Festival. The festival is scheduled to be held from 5 to 12 December.

The 29 KIFF which is also to be a prelude to the 30th edition, is to be back to its previous grandeur with the presence of a gamut of stars at the inaugural ceremony and during the entire event. The film festival is to be inaugurated on 5 December with several Bollywood stars making it to the gala event. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is to inaugurate the festival on 5 December at Netaji Indoor Stadium at 4pm.

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According to sports and youth affairs, power, and housing department minister Aroop Biswas, Bollywood stars, including Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Sonakshi Sinha, Kamal Hassan, Mahesh Bhatt and Saurav Ganguly are to be a part of the grand opening ceremony of the KIFF.

The Bengali romantic musical drama, Deya Neya(1963), by Sunil Bandopadhyay, starring legendry actors Uttam Kumar and Tanuja, will be the inaugural film, the screening of which is to be done at 5.30pm at Netaji Indoor Stadium. Around 15,000 people are expected to watch the inaugural film on that day. In the bevy of stars, eminent Bollywood actress Aditi Rao Hydari will be present in the closing ceremony on 12 December.

The KIFF that is usually marked by the presence of numerous nationally and internationally acclaimed actors, directors, singers, script writers and other members of the film fraternity, is to witness the participation of acclaimed national and international film personalities like Laurence Kardish, Angela Molina, Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra and Manoj Bajpayee. According to tourism minister Indranil Sen, this year around 1,590 entries were received for films, including feature and documentary from various countries.

A total of 72 feature films and 50 short and documentaries are to be screened at 23 venues including Mani Square, Quest Mall, Metro, South City and Parchi apart from Nandan I, II, III, Navina, Menoka and so on. Hand-picked movies from 39 countries are to be screened with Spain as the focus country. The Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture is to be delivered by eminent filmmaker Laurence Kardish.