JOIN USThe ‘Bangalore Short Film Festival’ provided a great platform for budding film-makers from across the country. Along with showcasing 30 short films, the festival also had a short film competition called ‘Filmfare Premiere League’.
It was organised in order to mark the 100 years of Indian cinema and to salute the contribution of the Kannada film industry towards the development of Indian cinema.
There were around seven teams in each group and they were pitched against each other to determine the best short films. The fest saw many amateur students as well as professional film and documentary makers showcasing their talent.
“It’s a great opportunity for young talent. It is a good platform for them to showcase their talent. Many film institutes as well as colleges have taken part and there were many colleges from outside the City which had come all the way to participate in the competition and screening,” says Anupam Choudhury, the festival coordinator.
P Ramacandran, a bank manager from Chennai, screened his first short film at the festival.
Many other amateurs who pursue film-making as a hobby, also showcased their short films and documentaries at the festival.
“The festival has given us a great platform; there was so much scope to interact and learn from other film-makers. There were professionals as well and that really helped, as they gave us good feedback regarding our short films and documentaries,” informs Janardan, a film student.
The competition had participants from various parts of the country. The participants showcased their films and documentaries on various topics. While some were based on topics pertaining to society, others highlighted the creative aspects of the film-makers.
The festival received 80 films including short films, animations, documentaries and music videos. Around 45 films were shortlisted but only 30 movies were screened during the festival. While the best short film, made by a professional, was awarded to Mombatti, directed by Puneet Prakas, the best short film, made by a student, was awarded to Asha Kusumagalu, which was directed by Syam Sivanandan from Flash Frame Visuals Academy.
The best animation movie made by a student was ‘A Story’, directed by Laxmikant Jena, ZICA, Bhubaneswar and the best documentary film made by a student was ‘Stories form Hollywood’, directed by Diksha Grover and Sagar Shah.
“The main objective of the festival was to create the culture of short films in India, promote up-and-coming film-makers, develop sources of revenue generation for short films and make short film-making a commercial enterprise,” sums up festival director Rambhul Singh, who is a film-maker himself.