IFFI Goa 2025, 09: Does IFFI need the media, or does the media need IFFI, that is the question

IFFI Goa 2025, 09: Does IFFI need the media, or does the media need IFFI, that is the question

This is not the first time that media has been maltreated at IFFI. It will also not be the last time. The only way for media to avoid being humiliated and maltreated is to not go to cover IFFI as a media-person. It would appear that the media needs IFFI, and that IFFI does not need the media. Or, at least, it does not want media to be treated well. Cinema is a medium, and taught at hundreds of film-schools across India. IFFI itself is a media event, the biggest annual media event in the country, and media-persons from all over the country, and abroad, come to Goa, which is the IFFI home, since 2004, in November. They comprise various media platforms: Press, TV, Radio, Internet and Social Media. There are three main types of media-persons who attend IFFI: Critics/Correspondents, general film journalists, reporters and photographers/videographers.

Critics are mainly interested in watching films. General film journalists and columnists give their overviews and conduct interviews, reporters attend and report on press conferences, photographers and videographers take pictures and make videos. Access to IFFI films and events is provided free of charge to media-persons who qualify. The process of selecting media-persons is conducted by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), a division of the Central Government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which conducts IFFI, through the National Film Development Corporation, in association with the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG). PIB is the central government’s media and public relations arm. All official announcements of the government are made through PIB. At IFFI, PIB conducts press conferences and issues press releases and photographs, all through the 9 days including the inaugural day and the closing day. It also forms a WhatsApp group, where announcements and press releases are regularly posted.

Since IFFI began in its primitive form in 1952, one would have thought that it would have mastered the art of dealing with media-persons by now. Surely, 73 years is a long enough time to iron out any creases in the process. Even if we take into account the fact that IFFI became an annual feature only after 1976, it still had 49 years to gear-up to the task. But wait a minute. Different parties come into power to constitute the central government, holding office for up to 5 years at each tenure. Even during this tenure, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting keeps changing, sometimes as often as thrice during 5 years, as do the various secretaries in the ministry. Often, a Minister holds charge of several Ministries, with Information and Broadcasting being one of them. Then there is the issue of ESG and then terms of the MoU have changed over the last 21 years. Top officials at PIB keep changing too, mainly due to retirement, and every 2-3 years, we have a new Director General and new staff assigned to IFFI duty, at PIB, chosen from various parts of the country. The result is a sordid mess.

Not every media-person who wants to attend IFFI and cover it can do so. There are several hurdles in his/her way. Firstly, travel. They might have to travel long distances, as far east as Assam and Manipur, as far north as New Delhi and Punjab, as far west as Mumbai and as far south as Kerala. It could take up to 12 hours by hopping flights or 36 hours of train travel to get to Goa. Secondly, leave. If the media-persons are staff or are sponsored by a media organisation, there is no problem. The publishing company assigns festival duty to one or more of its colleagues, and pays for their travel and stay, so there is no question of ‘leave’. On the other hand, if the person desirous of attending IFFI is a freelancer, or one who has a regular job but is a great film buff and film journalist as well, he/she needs to get leave and/or make arrangements to allot up to 11 days (including travel) to cover IFFI. This is not easy or common. So hundreds of knowledgeable film journalists end up not making it to IFFI. Thirdly, the cost. Though media is not charged any fee for registration, and should never be charged, the trip can end up costing anything from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 75,000, depending on your status (sponsored or self-motivated) and duration of stay. Panaji is an expensive city, and many things cost significantly more in Panaji than in Mumbai, including hotels. Fourthly, the weather. Temperatures in Panaji during end November are in the range of 26 to 33 degrees Celsius, with an occasional dip only during 5-7 am, and many visitors would find it necessary to stay in air-conditioned rooms, which, obviously, cost more than the non A/C ones. Very few freelance journalists can afford such expenditure, and we find them skipping IFFI more often than attending it.

Now, if you are still up to it, you might want to apply for accreditation at IFFI, as a media-person. PIB opens registration between 25 and 75 days before the event. Such a fluctuation is extremely unhealthy. When you are planning a trip that could last up to 11 days, you need to know well in advance whether you are registered for the event, and you need to book hotels, and air/train/bus tickets too, well in advance. Normally, bookings are easily available and cost much less when made 60 days or more before the event. But registrations sometimes open just 3-4 weeks in advance, online. The website being inaccessible or hanging are not uncommon. Then, the form that you are asked to fill is rather complicated and parts of it are misleading. After you manage to fill in the form and submit it, you get a mail that it has been received. However, it takes another week or two to get a confirmation of your accreditation. This leaves you barely 2 weeks to make all arrangements, which would pinch your pocket because of the last-minute bookings.

Accredited media-persons need to collect a badge either from the festival’s Media Centre or another specified place, not too far away. The Media Centre is operational from Day 1, sometimes even a day earlier. This consists of four divided rooms. The first has 2 PIB officials seated at the entrance. The second and third have about 50 work-stations, with computers and Internet access. The fourth is the Press Conference Room. Earlier, the highest officials of PIB used to have rooms adjoining the Media Centre, but this year, the two Director Generals on duty occupied rooms outside the Centre. Besides the rooms, there are two areas towards the outer side of the Centre, extending from the Media Centre. In one of them, there is a water dispenser and a tea/coffee dispensing machine, manned by a person who is contracted to operate it, and who offers you half a medium-sized paper cup of either beverage, on demand. The other area is cordoned off and reserved for the PIB officials to partake beverages, snacks and food.

During the festival, media-persons have the choice of booking seats to film shows/master classes/interactions (online), attending press conferences, working on the computers, attending cocktail/dinner receptions, if invited, or taking breaks in between. Tickets to film shows have to be booked in advance. Bookings open at 8.00 am sharp, and about 1,000-2,000 persons try to log-in and choose their films, scheduled for the same day/the next day/the day after the next day. The site needs to be constantly refreshed and goes blank sometimes. If you get tickets for the films of your choice, you are lucky. By about 8.15, the chances of getting tickets for shows two days hence are down to zero. You might not even get tickets for your back-up choices. Screenings are repeated in many cases, but even the second time around, you will face the same situation.

INOX, within the festival complex, with four auditoriums, is the main venue for screenings. Other venues are the INOX multiplex in Porvorim, which is a locality some 15 minutes’ drive from the Media Centre, Samrat cinema, 10-15 minutes’ walk from the Media Centre, and a couple of other venues far away, where few media-persons would venture. Earliest shows begin at 9 am and shows labelled Macabre Dreams, are held after 8.30 pm, sometimes as late as 9.45 pm. Most of the narration here is based on the 2025 edition, and things have been different in many of the earlier editions.

Press conferences start around 10 am and carry on, successively, till about 7 pm. These attract from 5 to 20 persons. Sometimes, you have up to seven personalities on the dais, with one moderator, representing PIB. The seven might represent up to 3 different films. Though there could be 8 speakers, and a Q and A with the press to follow, the total time allotted might be as little as 60 minutes. Of this, 10 minutes could be taken up in introducing the personalities and another 20 minutes would go towards the Moderator posing questions to them and getting their answers. That would leave barely 30 minutes for the press to interact with the speakers, about 3 films, which is 10 minutes each. So, barely 2-3 questions can be asked about each film. The entire arrangement is unfair to both, the speakers and the press. Also, it is a bitter truth that those media-persons who prefer watch films do not attend press conferences, as attending them would mean missing out on one film at least. As a result, most of those media-persons who attend press conferences would not have seen the film which is at the center of the Q and A. Obviously, their questions are general in nature, or, sometimes, at variance with the content of the film.

Was media treated better at earlier IFFIs? Was it treated rather shoddily at IFFI 2025? What can be done to give media the due respect it demands and commands? I will dwell on these issues in the next instalment of my coverage of IFFI 2025. Just for the record, IFFI 2025 was the 56th, chronologically, and I have completed 56 years in film journalism. During this period, I have attended 45 IFFIs, including the latest one, and attended 21 IFFIs as Goa consecutively, since it became the permanent venue, in 2004. So, I guess, my experiences, observations, views and recommendations matter. Or do they? If they do, to whom do they matter?