Bhubaneswar, Jan. 27: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the 11th annual international festival of films on art and artists at the Idcol auditorium here today.

The threeday event, the only of its kind in India, is being hosted by painter Jatin Das's Centre of Art, where 41 films from 14 countries will be screened.

A festival committee, consisting of festival director and eminent film scholar Aruna Vasudev, associate director Biren Das, Raman Chawla, Sudhir Tandon, U Radhakrishnan and Sunit Tandon, have selected the

films to be screened. Similarly, the Odia film section has been finalised by filmmakers such as Manmohan Mohapatra, Raju Mishra, Prakash Nayak, Gadadhar Puty, Chakradhar Sahu and Kapilas Bhuyan.

The festival opened with Nabakalebar (God's Own People) directed by internationallyacclaimed Nila Madhab Panda. Nina Sabnani's Hum Chitra Banate Hain (We Make Images) and The Man Who Built Cambodia by Cristopher Rompré were also screened on the first day.

The festival will screen films on Odia legends, including pattachitra painter Gokul Behari Pattanaik, actor Sarat Pujari, artists Ajit Keshari Ray and Muralidhar Tali.

Art critic Aruna Vasudev said seven poetic films on architecture, including Steffi Giaracuni's documentary about the legendary Kangra Valley architect Didi Contractor, the awardwinning Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry by Alison Klayman, Jai Ho, which explores the evolution of A.R. Rahman's music and

Metamorphosis, a film about eminent artist Satish Gujral, would be screened at the festival.

Eminent photographer Raghu Rai spoke on the nuances of photography and his experiences at the opening ceremony.

JDCA founder Jatin Das said the decadeold festival had gone global this year with films from Afghanistan, Cambodia, England, France, Germany, Japan, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA being screened. "Since its second edition, each festival has been thematic, and this year's focus has been on architecture," he said.

An integral part of the festival is a showcase of Odisha's traditional cultural heritage, tribal and folk performances, an exhibition and sale of crafts and handloom textiles by the makers and Odia cuisine.

There will also be talks on architecture, art and design by P.K. Das, an urban planner and architect from Mumbai, vernacular architecture of Odisha by S.S. Ray and designing museums by Subrata Bhowmick, a designer.

Marta Krolikowska, an art historian from Poland, who takes care of one of the most important modern and contemporary art collections in central Europe, The Grazyna Kulczyk Collection, will give a lecture on Polish contemporary art, while Malin Pettersson Öberg, the director of Att Läsa Glaset (Reading Glass) will talk on the craft of making in Sweden.

The festival offers two filmmaking workshops - Cinematic Films on a Budget, to be conducted by award winning documentary filmmakers Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl. Sudhir Tandon, former executive director of Lok Sabha TV and additional director general of Doordarshan will also give a presentation on visual composition.