The 20th Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF) has begun with a bang on Thursday- December 15 and will be held till December 22. The festival will be conducted by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF) in association with PVR cinemas and with the support of the Tamil Nadu government and a total of 102 films will be screened in this current edition. 

According to reports, the films are categorized under four sections - Tamil Feature Film Competition, Indian Panorama, World Cinema, and Country Focus Switzerland. Around 30 films in Tamil language have applied in the competition for Tamil films and of these 30, 12 movies have been selected and would be screened in the current festival. 

These Tamil films are 'Gargi', 'Maamanithan', 'Iravin Nizhal', 'Kasada Thapara', 'Aadhaar', 'Kida', 'O2', 'Irudhi Pakkam', 'Yuddha Kaandam', 'Natchathiram Nagargirathu' and 'Beginning'. Fifteen movies are part of the Indian Panorama section - Soul of Silence (Assamese), Kadaisi Vivasayi (Tamil), Saudi Vellaka (Malayalam), Pothanur Post Office (Tamil), Mahananda (Bengali), Bhotbhoti (Bengali), Pratikshya (Oriya), Ekda Kaay Zala (Marathi), Appan (Malayalam), Taya (Sanskrit), Dhabari Quruvi (Irula), Maalai Nera Malipoo (Tamil), Cinema Bandi (Telugu), and The Storyteller (Hindi). 

75 movies will be screened under the section of World Cinema and the festival organizers have announced that the online registration can be done through CIFF's website and BookMyShow. The offline registration can be done at Anna theater in Mount Road. During the festival, a total of nine awards including 'Amitabh Bachchan Youth Icon' will be conferred to the artists for their outstanding performances. 

The rest of eight awards would be bestowed on the categories including Best Film, Best Second Film, Jury Special Award, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematographer, Best Film Editor, and Best Sound Recorder. Tamil Nadu Minister for Information and Publicity Swaminathan, who will be the Chief Guest, will be presenting the awards to the winners.