NEW DELHI: The 55th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will begin in Goa today. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan will jointly inaugurate the event at Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Stadium in Bambolim at 5 pm.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will also attend the opening ceremony along with film personalities like Nagarjuna, Nithya Menon and Boman Irani. There will be a special musical feast by AR Rahman as a tribute to legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar.

The eight-day festival will showcase 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films. Australian film Better Man will be screened first at 2.30 pm. The opening film in the feature category is 'Swatantrya Veer Savarkar' (Hindi) directed by Randeep Hooda. The non-feature opening film is 'Ghar Jaisa Kuch' (Ladakhi) directed by Harsh Sangani.

Malayalam films like Aadujeevitham, Bhramayugam, Level Cross (Indian Panorama) and Manjummal Boys (Mainstream) will be screened. Noted film director, actor and screenwriter Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi is the chairman of the feature film jury. Five films, including Rakesh Narayanan's Malayalam film Thanupp, will be screened in the competition to find the best new director.

Raj Kapoor, Tapan Sinha, Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Mohammed Rafi, who have shaped the facets of Indian cinema, will be honoured at the festival. Seven Australian films will be screened in the 'Country of Focus' section. Australian film producers and representatives of Screen Australia, state screen commissions and Ausfilm will attend the fair. Six films will be screened in the Work in Progress Lab section.