By Matters India Reporter

Kolkata, March 9, 2020: the ”Chitrabani” (sight and sound), a Jesuit-run media center, organized the 16th Kolkata Short Film Festival (KSFF) March 1-5 at Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre, Kolkata.

The festival showcased some of the best short form pictures from India and abroad.

As many as 72 films selected from 130 films were screened during the 16th KSFF. There were two shows daily, at 3.00 PM, and 5:45 PM at Nandan. Each show had a screening duration of two hours and thirty minutes. There were 10 screening sessions during the five days of the festival, with over 24 hours of film screening, said Jesuit Father P.J. Joseph, festival director, 16th KSFF.

More than 300 people viewed different short films daily. Entry to the festival was by invitation and free passes, which were available at Chitrabani, and at the venue, an hour before each show, subject to the availability of passes, he said.

The special attraction of this year’s festival was the presence of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) nominated short films from the U.K. BAFTA Shorts 2019 is a program of the British Short Film and British Short Animation winners and nominees at the annual EE British

Academy Film Awards, celebrating innovative and experimental short fiction and non-fiction films and animation.

This program includes all the most recent BAFTA short film award winners and nominees. There were eight films in this category that were screened on the last day of the festival.

BAFTA Shorts included 73 Cows by Alex Lockwood, Bachelor, 38 by Angela Clarke, The Blue Door by Paul Taylor, I’m Ok by Elizabeth Hobbs, Marfa by Greg McLeod, The Field by Sandhya Suri, Wale by Barnaby Blackburn, and Roughhouse by Jonathan Hodgson. They ranged from 6 minutes (I’m Ok) to 20 minutes (Wale).

The inaugural session of the festival on March 1 featured seven short films, Meal by Abhiroop Basu, Beyond Dreams by Roop Creative, Daag by Sundeep / Sumit Binjola, The Boy with a Gun by Khanjan Kishori Nath, Mini by Shampa Dasgupta / Swaraj Ghosh, Canvas by Soumojit Adak, and Do I Exist: A Riddle by Dhruva Harsh.

The Kolkata Short Film Festival was conceived by Chitrabani in 2004 to bring together professional and amateur short filmmakers to promote short films. The festival, though open to all, especially focuses on attracting young people. It had been days of sheer pleasure to hardcore film buffs of Kolkata.

The 16th KSFF had films that cater to all classes and tastes: there are romances, thrillers, special effects, animations, children specific, documentaries on individuals, and cultures, and their duration range from 1 minute 40 seconds (100 seconds by Abhijit Bhunia) to 30 minutes (Mini by Shampa Dasgupta / Swaraj Ghosh).

The 15th KSFF will have films that cater to all classes and tastes: there are romances, thrillers, special effects, animations, children specific, documentaries on individuals, and cultures.

Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay, former Head of the Department of Jadavpur University was the chief guest at the inaugural function, while upcoming actor Soham Maitra and filmmaker Indrani Chakrabarti were present as guest of honors.

The festival ended on March 5 with an award function for the best films. G Mullik, Professor at Xavier University, presided over the function.

Two sets of Jury selected six films for awards in the competitive category of Script, Cinematography and Editing.

The best film for Script under 5 minutes to 20 minutes went to The Boy With A Gun Directed by Khanjan Kishore Nath. The same film also bagged the best film for Cinematography. And the best film for Editing went to Do I Exist: A Riddle Edited by Surya Kant Verma.

The best film for Script under 5 minutes to 30 minutes was bagged by Spare Key Arpita Roy Chowdhury, Shinjan Basu and Soumojit. The best films for Cinematography and Editing went to Radhabiroho Cinematography by Liton Paul, and Canvas Edited by Arijit Bose.

The awarded were given a trophy, citation and a memento from Chitrabani.