Thirty-two short films from Germany, France, the United States, Estonia and several other countries were screened at the International Short Film Festival (ISFF), organised by Ekhon Roddur and presented by Balaji Group, at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) from November 16 to 18.
The festival saw the screening of 32 short films that the jury had selected out of nearly 300 submissions from countries such as Germany, France, the United States and Estonia among others.
The festival was aimed at providing a platform to upcoming directors and make short films a part of mainstream cinema.
Mahul Mukhopdhyay performing at the opening ceremony of ISFF
“Upcoming directors don’t always have the budget to make full-length films. We organised this festival to encourage them while also providing them a platform to connect with other filmmakers and the rest of the film fraternity,” said Diptimoy Ghosh, joint director, ISFF. “The best films will be streamed on Klikk (a streaming platform) from which they can earn revenue.”
The organisers of the festival also paid tribute to filmmaker Mrinal Sen. “We organised the screening of a documentary on the filmmaker on the first day and his son, Kunal Sen, sent us a short video where he talks about his father,” Ghosh said.
Mamata Shankar at the opening ceremony
“I really enjoyed today’s event (the opening ceremony). The fact that the festival is honouring Mrinalda is the biggest plus point,” said Mamata Shankar, one of the guests at the opening ceremony.
The inauguration also featured dance performances by Mahul Mukhopadhyay and Kohinoor Sen Barat Dance Academy. Actors Biswanath Basu, Sohini Sengupta and Sreela Majumdar, filmmakers Raja Chanda, Tathagata Mukherjee and Satarupa Sanyal and Mamata Shankar were among those honoured by ISFF president Joysurjya Mukherjee and ISFF director Kaushik Sengupta. Music composer Kalyan Sen Barat and light designer Dinesh Poddar also felicitated the guests.
Performance by Kohinoor Sen Barat Dance Academy
“Kalyan Sen Barat and Madhabi Mukherjee inspired us to provide a platform for new filmmakers. Not many people watch short films and we want to encourage more people to watch them through this event,” Mukherjee said.
The second day of the event saw director Debasish Sen Sharma conducting a workshop on the significance of short films and their distribution cycle.
The third day of the festival saw the screening of the visually striking short film IPSA by Pavitra Verma, who flew in from Los Angeles, and Sreelekha Mitra's standout short film Ebong Chad.
A still from Sreelekha Mitra’s ‘Ebong Chad’
The closing ceremony was attended by actors Sreelekha Mitra, Senjuti Mukherjee, Barun Chanda, Benny Basu, Anashua Majumdar and Kalyan Sen Barat.
“I was a jury board member at the festival and I think this festival was a brilliant attempt at honouring good films. There are no big or small films for me. I only believe in good films. Often new directors struggle to find producers leading them to make short films that turn out to be brilliant. Festivals like this one allow these movies to reach the audience. I appreciate this initiative and I want more creative individuals to take up filmmaking,” said Kalyan Sen Barat.
The audience at ISFF
Alagarson by Mostafa Keshavarz from Iran won the best short film award. Earth is Never Dry by Nikola Vucinic from the United Kingdom and Thank You for Coming by Aniruddha Sadasivan of India won the second and the third best short film awards respectively.
Siddhant Verma from St Xavier’s University attended the festival on all three days and found it to be an “enlightening” experience. “I liked the film Impasse by Ehsan Norouzi quite a lot. Apart from that the masterclass helped me understand how to utilise the concept of a cinema. Overall, it has been a great experience and has helped me understand that there are no set formulae for making a great film,” he added.
Siddhant Verma from St Xavier’s University attended all three days of the festival
“Every year at this festival, we invite students from all those colleges that teach multimedia and filmmaking. We want the youth to be inspired and motivated to create good art through this festival,” said Kaushik Sengupta, director, ISFF.