The Sixth Kalpanirjhar International Short Fiction Film Festival 2008, held on the regular dates from 1 – 5 November, had featured 87 films from 20 countries, reaching out to more than 2000 viewers over the five days of the Festival. The Patton Award for the best Indian entry carrying a cash prize of INR 20,000 went to Three of Us entered by the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and directed by Umesh Kulkarni. The Festival got wide coverage in the print as well as the electronic media.
The First Kalpanirjhar Annual Lecture was launched on 1 April 2009 with filmmaker Aparna Sen in conversation with critic Samik Bandyopadhyay in front of a capacity crowd in the auditorium of Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata. The Vivada Award for best film script out of the 20 entries to the Kalpanirjhar Film Script Competition, carrying a cash prize of INR 20,000 was handed over on the same evening to Nirmalya Majumder for his script Confessions.
The Foundation’s initiative to re-launch Cinewave, an English periodical widely appreciated in the early 1980shas met with very encouraging response from contributors. Work on the first revived issue has progressed considerably and it is expected to be circulated by the end of the year. The Foundation is also simultaneously working on a separate publication Cinewave Interviews, a collection of valuable and still relevant interviews with major Indian directors published in Cinewave during 1983-85 supplemented by a few current ones.
The Seventh Kalpanirjhar International Short Fiction Film Festival now brings you 82 films from 20 countries. Out of the 86 Indian entries received, 16 have been selected for screening at the Festival and these will be competing for the Patton Award 2009 to be announced on the last day of the Festival.
Over the years the Festival has grown in spread and variety, and has tried to maintain the right balance between experimentation and social concern. Every year it brings together a large gathering of cineastes, budding filmmakers and students of cinema and communication, ready to share their responses and reactions. This year’s Festival will hopefully have the same rich and vibrant ambience. |
