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Calcutta International Short Film Festival 2020 kickstarts its first edition

By Special Correspondent

  • The Independent Film Society kickstarts the debut edition of Calcutta International Short Film Festival 2020 that will be held from 18th to 20th December 2020.

The unique short film festival that is being rolled out annually will be held online this year owing to the ongoing pandemic situation. The festival aims to provide a platform to showcase the talent of various short filmmakers across the globe. Prior to the festival a series of masterclass and workshops will be held starting 12th December 2020.

This year’s festival has decided to host an array of cinematic brilliance with 96 films being selected in the competition section, curated across the world. Out of these 96 films, 21 films are selected from across India and 9 films are from Bengal. The films have been selected under four different categories: Short Fiction, Short Animations, Experimental Shorts and Documentary Shorts.

All the selected films will be screened in Kolkata (India) online and a specialised jury will select a film/ individual from various categories for their cinematic brilliance. Following will be the categories that will be awarded with a laurel/certificate:

  1. Best Short Fiction – National
  2. Best Short Fiction – International
  3. Best Short Animations
  4. Best Experimental Shorts
  5. Best Documentary Shorts
  6. Best Director
  7. Best Acting
  8. Best Editing
  9. Best Sound Designing
  10. Best Cinematography

Apart from these categories, a special honorary award has been constituted that will award talented individuals from across India. This year the award will be honoured dedicated in memory of the legendary actor Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay.

Some of the exemplary work that will be showcased this year are Morad Mostafa’s Henet Ward from Egypt that is part of Oscar qualifying Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival “International Competition” (WORLD PREMIERE 2020), Zgjim Terziqi’s Salon that is part of Oscar qualifying Rhode Island International Film festival representing Kosovo, Diana Saqeb Jamal’s Roqaia from Afghanistan which had a World Premiere at the Oscar qualifying Venice International Film Festival , narrates the plight of a 12 year old girl Roqaia as she escapes a suicide bomb attack and becomes a centre of media frenzy and many more acclaimed films

Some of the noteworthy Indian films that will be screened this year are filmmaker Tarun Jain’s Kaala ( Black) that narrates the plight of an African student in an alien country because of his skin colour and is eligible to qualify for the Academy Awards 2021, Tathagatha Ghosh’s Miss Man, that has already been selected at more than 50 film festivals across the world and narrates the story of a village boy in love with a man trying to establish his identity while his homophobic father is on a mission to cure his son of the disease, A Silent Warble by Debanjan Majhi narrating the tale of a blind foley artist roaming around the streets of Ahmedabad collecting sound in his unique recorder, Lubdhak Chatterjee’s experimental film Aahuti (Sacrifice), Rebana Liz John’s documentary Ships Outside My Window and many more.

Festival Director Mr. Shubhankar Mazumdar said: “Short filmmakers don’t seem to get much support or recognition in India as much as they do globally. More than 70% of International festivals have dedicated a section to short films but the number is negligible when it comes to Indian festivals. Therefore, it is important to create an ecosystem that provides them with economical support and encouragement. CISFF not only aims to provide a platform for showcasing the talent of young and independent filmmakers but we are also trying to create a financial and technical support system for them. We will be holding masterclasses and workshops conducted by internationally acclaimed filmmakers from 12th to 17th December 2020 to equip them with the right kind of know-how.”

Calcutta International Short film Festival will be held online from 18th to 20th December 2020 and can be viewed free of cost across the world through https://ifsofindia.org/

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