The inaugural press conference of the 1st edition of the Calcutta International Short Film Festival 2020 (CISFF 2020) was held today at the iconic Priya Cinema Hall, Kolkata.
The
festival which will be held from 18th to 20th December
2020 online aims at providing a platform and ecosystem to short filmmakers
in India and desires to highlight the need for more such forums to encourage
filmmakers in India and to have festivals dedicated to short filmmakers.
The
guests for the event comprised of acclaimed director Kamaleswar Mukherjee,
veteran actor Biswanath Basu and young actor Priyanka Mondal among others. Director
Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s celebrated short film ‘The Hunger Artist’
which stars Ritwick Chakraborty, Biswanath Basu and Priyanka Mondal has
won several International acclaims and will be screened as the opening film of
the CISFF 2020 on 17th December, 2020. Also present were members of British
Council, who have partnered with the festival and provided them with the
cultural support. Arijit Dutta (Managing
Director of Priya Cinema)
The
event kicked off by paying homage by
maintaining 2minutes of silence to the legendary Soumitra Chatterjee, veteran Manu
Mukherjee and all the other icons whom this dreaded year of pandemic had
taken away from the cinema loving audience. This was followed by the trailer of
‘The Hunger Artist’ being showcased followed by a panel discussion on the
development of Independent cinema & filmmakers which was joined by young
upcoming directors like Tathagata Ghosh (whose film ‘Miss Man’
has won in more than 50 film festivals globally) and independent filmmaker Lubdhak
Chatterjee known for his experimental film Aahuti
(Sacrifice) . Both ‘Miss Man’ & ‘Aahuti’ will be screened at
CISFF 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 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.
The
award for the various categories will be announced on 20th December
2020 during the closing ceremony.
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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