Onmanorama returns with Critics’ Choice at IFFK’s International Competition

Amid the packed screenings and restless conversations that define the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), Onmanorama returns with the second edition of its Critics’ Choice at the 30th IFFK. [IFFK got underway in Thiruvananthapuram on December 12 and will be on till  19].

Launched last year, the initiative steps back from the noise of premieres and applause to closely engage with films in the International Competition section. These are the works that linger in the mind long after the final frame.

As with its inaugural edition, a three-member panel comprising Swathi P Ajith, Ayyappan R, and Aswin J Kumar will watch all the films competing in the international category. After seven days of screenings and deliberation, the panel will announce their top-five selections on the final day of the festival.

This year’s international competition brings together films from across continents, and each one is shaped by a distinct cinematic voice. The lineup includes ‘Black Rabbit, White Rabbit’, ‘Cinema Jazireh’, ‘Cuerpo Celeste’, ‘The Ivy’, ‘Khidki Gaav’, ‘Kissing Bug’, ‘Life of a Phallus’, ‘Shadowbox’, ‘The Currents’, ‘The Elysian Field’, ‘The Settlement’, ‘Two Seasons, Two Strangers’, and ‘Yen and Ai-Lee.’  Together, these films explore a wide spectrum of concerns ranging from personal loss and fractured identities to power structures, social divides, and political realities.

Critics’ Choice was first introduced at the 29th edition of IFFK, when Onmanorama constituted a three-member panel to assess the competition films. From the titles screened, five were shortlisted for standing out in terms of storytelling ambition, emotional depth, and cinematic craft.

Among last year’s selections was Alessandro Pugno’s ‘Animal/Humano,’ which drew unsettling parallels between a teenage boy and a bull navigating the unforgiving world of bullfighting. It questioned the ideas of courage, fear, and expectation. Mariana Wainstein’s ‘Linda’ examined class and power through the quiet, destabilising presence of a maid within the fragile order of a wealthy household.

Pedro Freire’s Brazilian film ‘Malu’ offered a raw, unflinching portrait of generational trauma shared by three women who deliberately resist neat resolutions. In ‘Feminichi Fathima,’ director Fasil Muhammed uses gentle humour and sharp observation to critique patriarchy to center the story on a woman’s struggle for something as basic as a good night’s sleep.

Topping the list was Iranian filmmaker Farshad Hashemi’s ‘Me, Maryam, The Children And 26 Others,’ a warm and quietly defiant film that embraced cinema as a space for healing, resistance, and human connection.