Entertainment
IFFI 2015 promises global cinematic gems, with Spain in focus
New Delhi: The 46th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which begins in Goa later this month, will have Spain as its focus country. The event’s opening ceremony will have popular Bollywood actor-producer Anil Kapoor who has made inroads into Hollywood, as the chief guest.
The 10-day IFFI begins on November 20.
“The Kingdom of Spain is the focus country of IFFI 2015. This will provide an opportunity to screen Spanish films. The films of master Spanish filmmakers Carlos Saura and Pedro Almadovar along with contemporary filmmakers like Alejandro Amenabar will be screened at the festival. The section will also feature Spanish actress Leticia Dolera’s directorial debut ‘Requirements to Be a Normal Person’,” Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley said during the curtain raiser press conference here on Tuesday.
Matthew Brown’s 118 minute-long movie “The Man Who Knew Infinity”, starring British actor with Indian roots Dev Patel, will be the opening film of IFFI 2015.
“It is a true story of friendship between Ramanujan (Indian mathematics genius) and Professor G.H. Hardy,” Jaitley said while describing the movie, and added that “Mr.India” star Anil Kapoor will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony.
The film festival will showcase 187 films from 89 countries in World Cinema section along with 26 Feature and 21 Non-Feature films in Indian Panorama section.
“The International Competition will have 15 films, including two films from Indian Panorama section. The jury for International Competition includes chairperson Shekhar Kapur along with Michael Radford from UK, Julia Jentsch from Germany, Israel based Palestinian filmmaker Suha Arraf, and Jeon Kyu-Hwan from South Korea,” said the minister.
IFFI, in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and Unesco will be presenting the ICFT-Unesco Fellini Prize to a film which reflects the ideals of peace, tolerance, non-violence and friendship promoted by Unesco. IFFI 2015 will also be conducting a special seminar on Film and Cultural diversity.
The Indian Panorama will have films from different languages and states. The 13-member Feature jury for selection was headed by chairperson, Aribam Syam Sharma while the seven-member Non-Feature jury was led by chairperson Rajendra Janglay.
This year, the section ‘Focus on North East Cinema’ will have a Special Retrospective on Sharma, an eminent filmmaker, actor and music composer from Manipur, along with a unique segment featuring next generation filmmakers from the northeast region.
Commencing a special feature this year, the festival in association with the Oscar Academy, will organize master classes with Academy members Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter and Humphrey Dixon on varied topics like sound designing, film archive and film editing.
“IFFI will also recognise young talent of cinema through the ‘First Cut’ section,” said Jaitley. The section would feature emerging filmmakers including Brian Perkins (“Golden Kingdom”, US), Michael Klette (“Solness”, Germany) and Piotr Chrzan (“Moskvich-My Love”, Poland).
In a special series titled ‘In Conversation’, Indian filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Vettrimaran, Kaushik Ganguli and Anand L. Rai will be present to discuss films and the art of filmmaking with the audience.
IFFI 2015 will feature a special section ‘World Cinema Restored Classics’ to highlight the idea of film restoration. The fest will also have a package of classics to put the spotlight on the National Film Heritage Mission.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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