Friday, June 6, 2008

IIFA 2008 – Saluting the essence of Indian cinema


“The IIFA weekend is an occasion of truly epic proportions that takes the spirit of Indian Cinema to every corner of the globe and embraces cultures from every continent,” - Amitabh Bachchan, IIFA Ambassador. Amitabh Bachchan’s quote sums up the essence of IIFA (International Indian Film Academy), an event that promotes Indian Cinema across the globe. Organised in exotic locales, the IIFA film festival showcases some of the best Films of Indian Cinema. This year’s event, sponsored by Idea, will be held in the beautiful city of Bangkok from 6th June to 8th June.

Covering myriad genres, the IIFA Film Festival presents a variety that has received popular and critical acclaim across the world. The International Indian Film Academy is special, it is no ordinary award star-studded glitzy event and it works for a purpose – to build bridges across cinemas, businesses, communities and nations and celebrate the spectacular world of cinema.

The gala event, conceptualized and produced by Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt Ltd and supported by the key members of the Indian film fraternity, now stands as the most respected South Asian film academy. The IIFA awards are India’s biggest event, keenly watched across the world.

Although, the IIFA awards came into being in the recent past – 2000 in London, it has miraculously metamorphosed from being just one night event to a three-day extravaganza, celebrating and hosting various events and activities. There is two award categories: Popular Awards (for Artistic Excellence), & Technical Awards (for Technical Excellence).

The IIFA weekend flies out around 500 representatives of Indian Cinema to a glamorous locale for a three-day weekend, which comprises a host of activities that include, press conferences, IIFA Foundation Celebrity Special Event, IIFA World Premiere, FICCI-IIFA Global Business Forum, IIFA Film festival, IIFA workshop and finally – the IIFA Awards Presentation Ceremony.

A very high-profile contingent - film stars and celebrities, sports personalities, government leaders and trade and industry representatives, grace the event.

Along its journey, IIFA has set numerous landmarks, which have been of immense benefit to Bollywood, the host country and the sponsors across the multimedia landscape.
Exotic locales of IIFA:

2000: London, UK

2001: Sun City, South Africa

2002: Genting Highlands Resort, Malaysia

2003: Johannesburg, South Africa

2004: Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore

2005: Amsterdam, Netherlands

2006: Dubai

2007: Yorkshire, UK

2008: Bangkok, Thailand

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