Romanian director Christian Mungiu's Cannes Palmes d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days will be the opening film of this year's International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, with Mungiu himself expected to attend.

Shah Rukh Khan will inaugurate the festival which takes place Nov 23 - Dec 3. The closing film is Carlos Saura's Portuguese musical Fados.

Among the more high-profile local films making their Indian premiere at the festival are Mira Nair's collection of films on Aids, Aids Jaago, and Rituparno Ghosh's Shakespearean drama The Last Lear, starring Amitabh Bachchan.

Special programmes include a tribute to Ingmar Bergman and a collection of French films. Regular sections include 'Cinema of the World' and the Indian Panorama for both feature and documentary films.

IFFI is organised by New Delhi-based government body, Directorate of Film Festivals, and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, in collaboration with the Entertainment Society of Goa. This year, former IFFI director Neelam Kapur has returned to head the festival.

'We have expanded capacity with four additional theatres close to the festival venue,' said Kapur. 'In order to solve the problem of queuing experienced by delegates last year, we have introduced a system of ticketing. Tickets can be collected for shows up to three days prior to the screening.'

The festival will also host Film Bazaar, organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), which encompasses a script development workshop, co-production market and seminar programme (see separate story).

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