Panaji, Nov 20 (IANS): Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur on Monday inaugurated the Film Bazar at 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

He said that the film bazaar is a haven for filmmakers, producers, and storytellers from all corners of the globe.

"It's a confluence of creativity and commerce, ideas and inspirations that form the building blocks of this thriving cinematic marketplace," he said.

He said that the Indian media and entertainment industry, with an annual growth rate of 20 per cent, is hailed as the fifth-largest and most globalised industry in the world.

“In its 17th year, the Film Bazaar has become an indispensable cornerstone of the IFFI, transcending borders and evolving into one of Asia’s biggest film markets,” Thakur said.

He said that this year, the selection of films for the Film Bazaar reflects a diverse mix of fiction, docu-shorts, documentaries, horror films, and even an animated film that deals with universal themes relating to the diaspora, patriarchy, urban angst, extreme poverty, climate crisis, nationalism, sports and fitness.

“We proudly present twelve documentaries from seven countries in the Co-production Market, exploring life in 17 different languages. It's a journey into the heart of reality through the lens of filmmakers,” he said.

The 10 recommended films from a variety of genres to be showcased in Film Bazaar at IFFI 54TH including documentary, horror, climate crisis, fiction etc. The films are in English, Hindi, Bengali, Marwari, Kannada, and Maori (New Zealand language).

The Film Bazaar showcases the official selection of the feature-length projects of the Co-Production Market from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, USA, UK, Singapore, Germany, France, Poland, Luxembourg and Israel.

The selected filmmakers will be pitching their projects to International and Indian producers, distributors, festival programmers, financiers, and sales agents at the open pitch.