Short film on living in the moment, 'Ithyartha...?', wins Weekend Film Challenge

The winners were feted at the DH Bengaluru 2040 Summit on Saturday

A Kannada short film on the importance of living in the moment won the second edition of the ‘Weekend Film Challenge’, organised by Deccan Herald as part of its Bengaluru 2040 Summit.

The winning team of Ithyartha...? (To resolve), directed by independent filmmaker Naveen Kempanhalli, received a cash price of Rs 50,000 at the event on Saturday.

G Aynkaran and Joshwin Pereira lifted the first and second runner-up prize for their films CRO-X-ED OVER and Dhrada Nirdhaara (Strong decision) respectively. They were awarded Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 each. Aynkaran works as an assistant director in the Tamil film industry while Pereira is a religious studies student.

The competition required participants to make a film of three to five minutes in 54 hours on one of the two themes - ‘Crossing over’, and ‘Stuck in a movement’. The themes were revealed on December 16, at 6 pm, and the submissions closed on December 18. The participants were also asked to include a shot of the DH building on MG Road or its newspaper, app or website in the final film.

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The entries were judged on the basis of interpretation of the theme, script, background music and technical proficiency by a jury comprising film editor Suresh Urs, filmmaker Sandhya Kumar and National Award-winning film critic Bharadwaj Rangan.

Ithyartha...? was scripted on the theme of ‘Stuck in a movement’. “The protagonist of the movie is inspired by me -- a young man who is chasing a dream and who is too focused on the hustle (culture). I wanted to spread the message of the importance of living in the movement and going with the flow,” says Kempanhalli, the director.

Aynkaran made an experimental film with minimal dialogues on the theme of ‘Crossing over’, and also acted as the protagonist. In his short, he gets teleported inside his phone, and tries to make sense of the new world.

Pereira chose the same theme and made a film on “a young boy who migrates to Bengaluru with a negative mindset and the little things that lead to his transformation”.

Ithyartha...? and CRO-X-ED OVER were screened at the summit. All the winning shorts will be available to stream on YouTube soon.