SPORTS fans will have something to look forward to when the Fiji National University's Film Festival starts from October 5 to 18.
A sports documentary from Argentina — a close-up view of the passion and rivalry between two football clubs Boca and River — is one of the entries into the festival.
FNU UniStudio director Ravi Malik says they will have a separate night for the sports film.
And he is calling on sports enthusiasts to take advantage of the screening.
Meanwhile, a remarkable program of films has been drawn ready for screening at the festival.
For the first time in Fiji, award- winning art and mainstream movies from countries such as Iran, Bulgaria, Russia, Iraq, Poland, Germany, Croatia and India will hit the screen in one program for free. Fiji Films acting chief executive officer Florence Swamy summed it up well at the launch of the event when she said that Fijian movie lovers would increase their appetite of foreign and art movies.
"It is also a boost for local producers as they in turn can get encouraged to produce films in their own languages and cultures," Ms Swamy said.
There are sensitive stories told in such films as Golchehreh, set in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A cinema owner tries to rebuild his cinema after the fall of the communist regime, but once again things fall into ruins when war breaks out and destroys Afghanistan's National Film Archive.
My Wedding and Other Secrets is the story of a girl from a traditional immigrant family and the boy she falls in love with in cross cultural and intergenerational turmoil. It even has a spot of swashbuckling swordplay.
Koko and the Ghosts, a charming tale of a boy who moves to a new home that appears to be haunted, so he sets out to solve the mystery of the death of the former owner with his friends, his sister and their loyal dog Car.
There are many more titles to interest film-goers from among the 80 that will be screening at Village 6 and Village 4 cinemas in Suva and Lautoka, on FNU campuses throughout the country and in Labasa.
They include Can You Hear Me, Watering the Grass Roots, Till the Pen Falls, Leaving Baghdad, Nana, Holidays, The Precinct, and a broad selection of Indian films from the much-loved classics such as Sholay to recent films that have won national and international awards.