The 18th edition of the Trivandrum International Film Festival (TIFF) organised by Chalachithra Film Society commenced on August 9 with the screening of Hungarian film ‘The Adventure’ directed by Jozsef Sipos at the Ranga Vilasam Palace Hall at 9.15 am. The official inauguration will be at 6 pm at the same venue.

Acclaimed filmmaker T V Chandran will inaugurate the festival which will be presided over by K R Mohanan, former chairman, Chalachitra Academy. Kayoko Furukawa, Consul (Japan), Chennai, will be the guest of honor. Filmmaker M P Sukumaran Nair will offer felicitations. Hives, an anthology directed by five directors at five different countries, will be the opening film. The 72-minute critically acclaimed film has been shot in Croatia, Israel, UK, Germany and Czech.

There will be 7 screenings on the opening day. The films screened are ‘The Adventure’ (Hungary) directed by Jozsef Sipos, ‘Upper Dog’ (Norway) by Sara  Johnson, Ballad (Japan) by Yamazaki Takashi and inaugural film Hives.

The other  films to be screened at the festival are ‘Love is Love’ (Czech) by Milan Cieslar, The Poor (Iran) by Mohammad Reza and Water Lilies (French) by Celine Sciamma.

The one-week long festival features Japanese, French, Hungarian and French Cinema. In addition to this, the festival will screen films from twenty one countries in the world cinema section. The festival concludes on August 15.