A group of young filmmakers of Dhanbad, aiming to organise the first Coal Capital International Film Festival Olympiad, have started to select entries for the festival, set to kick off on February 20.

The film festival has been divided into three categories -- short film, documentary and music video -- while the entries will be screened from February 20 to March 1. The screenings of the top 10 films from each category will be carried out on March 6 at the Tetullah ground in coal town.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Thursday, Nehal Ahmad (38), one of the organisers of the event, said, “The entries can be uploaded on the website, www.cciffo.com or sent on the email id office@cciffo.com from January 19 to February 20.”

Ahmad is a Dhanbad-based filmmaker who is organising the first-of-its-kind event in the town under the banner of AKS Trust.

“Short films and documentaries of less than 30 minutes duration will be accepted, while the music videos should be of standard length of around two and a half to three minutes,” he said.

He elaborated that the entries can be of any language, including local ones like Nagpuri, Khortha,Mundari, Bhojpuri and Magahi.

“We have already received a Bhojpuri entry from Mauritius. The Bhojpuri dialect of Mauritius is slightly different from that of Bihar,” Ahmad, a postgraduate diploma-holder in TV Production and Direction from Sri Aurobindo Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, said.

Giving out more details, he said that the first round of selection of entries would be done after the arrival of all entries upto February 20.

“The indoor screening of entries would be carried out for more than 10 days from February 20 before a panel of experts from Ranchi, Calcutta and Dhanbad. After that, the entries will undergo the second round of indoor screening from March 1 to March 5. Thereafter, the open-screening of top 10 ten entries will be carried out on March 6,” he added.

Ahmad’s short film Chappal, which highlights the problems of Naxalism in the state was selected as the best film during the short film festival Super Shorts-12, in 2012.

Amit Chandra, the founder-director of the Coal Capital International Film Festival Olympiad said it will be a challenge for them to conduct the open-screening on March 6 as the Tetullah ground belongs to the department of Railways.

“We will seek permission from the district administration and Dhanbad Division authorities of Indian Railway,” he said.

“The basic aim behind organising the film festivals is to aware common people about a variety of films based on various social, human and environmental issues and to attract youths to filmmaking,” said Chandra.