11th Chennai International Film Festival

Actress Shabana Azmi, who was expected to be present for the inaugural following an invite by Thangaraj, could not make her presence.[8] The event was set in motion at around 5:30 PM on 12 December 2013 at Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao Concert Hall.[14] The fest was inaugurated by Tamil actor-director Kamal Haasan and Bollywood actor-director-TV anchor Aamir Khan in the presence of celebrities including Mohanlal. Khan who resides at Mumbai attended the event in Chennai at his own expense following the example set by Amitabh Bachchan the previous year.[15] A week prior to the inauguration, in a curtain-raiser interview to The Hindu, Khan emphasised the need for social commitment in films.[16] Following the inauguration, in an open stage interaction with Suhasini, Haasan underlined the importance of script writing and was quoted saying "There are books, but books will not make cinema. Even Shakespeare will have to learn script-writing."[17] In response to a question raised by singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam on the need for qualified critics in censor board, Haasan also called for the film industry to take the responsibility of censoring films as he felt that those on the Censor Board were not qualified enough to do so.[18] As part of his inaugural speech, Khan wished for a chain of theatres to showcase world cinema and Indian art-house films throughout the year claiming "these films do attract considerable audience."[19]

The inauguration was compered by actress Abhirami and Ramya of the CIFF.[17] The event began with poetry reading of select Tamil film songs by actresses Rohini and Poornima Bhagyaraj followed by a music session with performances by vocalist Karthik and pianist Anil Srinivasan, who rendered songs of Ilaiyaraja.[18] As part of the event, dancers Shobana, Swarnamalya and their students presented thematic dance performances.[17]

The main event of the fest constitutes the screening of 165 films that includes 12 Tamil films as part of the Tamil Feature Film Competition, 17 films of Indian Panorama, and three documentaries, one each on Ellis R. Dungan, Gemini Ganesan and K. Subramanyam.[20] The film festival featured retrospectives of Goran Paskaljevic from Serbia (seven films), Claire Denis from France (five films) and Istvan Szabo from Hungary (three films). The event also included a special section showcasing six films from contemporary Turkey apart from a country focus on Taiwan and Iran.[20] The fest had a special focus on award-winning films from international film festivals like Cannes, Berlin and Venice some of which were screened.[21] The venues for the screening were the Woodlands Multiplex (2 screens), Inox (2 screens), Abhirami Mega Mall (2 screens), Casino Theatre and Rani Seethai Hall.[6]

Three documentary films were screened in a Special Section.[4] An American in Madras is a documentary on American-Tamil film director Ellis R. Dungan. The documentary was the a result of a research by Karan Bali of Upperstall.com, a film website that focuses on classic and independent Indian cinema and its luminaries.[22] The Tamil romantic-drama Kadhal Mannan is a documentary on veteran actor Gemini Ganesan, who was popularly known by the moniker 'Kadhal Mannan'. The third was a documentary on director K. Subramanyam titled He Swam Against the Colonial Current. The docu was made for the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), New Delhi, by S. Krishnaswamy, Subrahmanyam's son.[23]

The fest got rolling with the screening of the Hirokazu Koreeda directed Like Father, Like Son, the English remake rights of which have been bought by Steven Spielberg.[24] The red carpet screenings include The Hunt, Walesa: Man of Hope, The Past, Omar, The Great Beauty and Harmony Lessons.[25] Claudia Lacotte of Eye on Films, a France-based distribution company, addressed the film industry and aspiring filmmakers on the importance of circulating feature films across film festivals around the globe.[4][26]

The event conducted three Forum Discussions, two in English and one in Tamil. The first of the three held at Inox, 'How to crowd fund your movie?' was moderated by filmmaker Alphonse Roy. Director Pawan Kumar who had directed the Kannada hit Lucia completely through crowd-funding and documentary filmmaker Amudhan R.P., discussed the possibility and ways of crowd-funding a film project. Rohini and independent filmmaker-journalist-film critic Sudhish Kamath also participated in the lively discussion.[27] In another discussion on 'Women behind Cinema' moderated by Suhasini, the panel, including female producers and entrepreneurs Pushpa Kandasamy of Kavithalayaa Productions, Archana Kalpathi of AGS Cinemas, Sitara Suresh and Nivedha Priyadarshini[28] discussed the difficulties faced by women filmmakers and technicians.[29] The third forum also held at Inox titled 'Realising Novel Ideas Successfully' discussed bringing novel ideas to films. The team behind Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom along with writer-filmmaker Amshan Kumar, Gautami and Sudhish Kamath took part[30] where the question of 'why do we make films?' cropped up. Suhasini quoted Walt Disney saying "We don't make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies."[29]

Excluding the aforementioned, 'Cinema of Cruelty', a discussion on Tamil cinema, pondered over the excessive violence found in Tamil films and its influences, citing that Paruthiveeran and Subramaniapuram started the trend inspiring even acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap to make a film like Gangs of Wasseypur.[31]

The Great Beauty[29][32] Parviz[29] Walesa: A Man of Hope[28] The Hunt[33] Blue Is The Warmest Colour[34] Omar[35] Midhunam[36][37][38] Like Father, Like Son[26]

The jury members for the Tamil feature film competition was introduced by Rohini.[39] The jury was headed by producer-director R. V. Udayakumar and constitutes actor-director Sripriya and prominent writer S. Ramakrishnan.[6] Twelve films were short listed from a total of 17 entries.[6]

The 8-day film festival came to a close on 19 December 2013. The closing ceremony was held at Sir Mutha Venkata Subba Rao Concert Hall. While Mohanlal was reported to be one of the chief guests of the evening, he skipped it having made it to the inauguration.[40] Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was the sole chief guest.[41] The closing was anchored by Karthi and Anu Hasan.[41] Following a live concert by composer Anirudh Ravichander, the chief guest handed over the various awards. Thanga Meenkal and Haridas won the first and second place in the Tamil Competition while its child actors won the newly instituted award for Best Child Artistes.[42] The Special Jury Award for Individual Excellence was presented to Adharvaa for his performance in Paradesi.[42] Anirudh won the maiden Amitabh Bachchan award for Youth Icon of the year.[43] The winner of the Online Film Buff Award was announced as Pavithran Sivam through their Facebook page.[44]

Retrospective of Goran Paskaljevic

Retrospective of István Szabó

Retrospective of Claire Denis