After a delay caused by local elections, the 3rd edition of International Film Festival Nagpur will begin on 16 March. Organized by Nirzar Film Society, the seven day cinephile festival will be held at Smruti Theatre. Thirty-two feature films will be shown before the festival concludes on 22 March.

The regional theme this year for IFFNagpur is ‘Banglar Gorbo-Bengal’s Pride’ and will feature six films in Bengali including two from Bangladesh. Other highlights of the event are Czech film ‘Closely watched trains’, ‘Orange Girl’ made in Norway, Swedish film ‘Hugo and Josephine’, Turkish film ‘My only Sunshine’ and Japanese film ‘Seven Samurai’.

Also on deck for IFFNagpur 2012 is a short film contest open to amateurs and professionals. “As we are paying tribute to Swami Vivekananda through our film festival, we welcome the ideas of films based on philosophy of Swami Vivekanand as he was the one who tried to connect spirituality with science…,” according to the film festival’s website. Three levels of prize money will be awarded: 1st Rs 15,000, 2nd Rs 10,000 and 3rd Rs 5,000. The jury this year comprises of Ganesh Matkari, Rima Amrapurkar and Dhruv Bannerji. Entry submissions for the contest will be accepted through 10 March.

For more information on the short film contest as well as a complete schedule of film screening times, visit Nirzar.org. IFFNagpur runs from 16 March through 22 March. Nagpur is located in northeastern Maharashtra.