The Festival will be inaugurated on Saturday 1 November 2008 at 6.00 pm by Sunil Gangopadhyay, Chairman, Sahitya Akademi, with veteran filmmaker Mrinal Sen as the Guest of Honour. Other guests and speakers on stage will include Dr Reimar Volker, Director, Goethe Institute / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata; Sanjay Budhia, Managing Director, Patton India Limited; Douglas Kelly, Director, American Center; Agnes Rouquie, Acting Director, Alliance Fracaise du Bengale; Goutam Ghose, Chairman, Kalpanirjhar Foundation; Sandip Ray, Managing Trustee, Kalpanirjhar Foundation. S V Raman will be Master of Ceremonies.

• Short & Sweet, 15 selected animation films from Germany, from a series of the same name compiled by the Goethe-Institut Munich;
• Award-winners from the USA, 6 films selected specially for this Festival by the American Center Kolkata;
• GenNext, 22 selected films from Film Schools in India and Germany;
• All Human Beings are Born Free and Equal…, a selection of award-winners from a competition organised by the “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Foundation and the Goethe-Institut. This selection includes 11 films from Germany, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the USA;
• Acclaimed Shorts from France, a selection of 11 films courtesy the Alliance Francaise du Bengale;
• Independent entries, 9 selected films, 7 from India, 1 from Belgium and 1 from the Netherlands;
• Filmfest Dresden 2008 at Kalpanirjhar, a selection of 6 awarded European films curated by Robin Mallick, Director, Filmfest Dresden;
• Capalbio 2008 at Kalpanirjhar, a selection of 6 films from this year’s Capalbio ShortFilmFest. The selection includes films from Germany, Norway, Iceland, Italy, Argentina and France.
• 19 Indian films competing for the Patton Award for the Best Indian Short Fiction Film of the Year at the Kalpanirjhar Festival.

In Brief

The Sixth Kalpanirjhar International Short Fiction Film Festival will in all feature 87 films: 29 from Germany, 19 from India, 12 from France, 8 from the USA, 3 from Russia, 2 from Italy and 1 each from Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Norway, Iceland, Argentina and Ireland. Out of these 18 films are in animation format.

Script Competition

The script should be conceived for a short fiction film (in a straight mode or animation mode) of not more than 30 minutes duration. There will be a cash award of Rs. 20,000 for the best script – the VIVADA Award.
Entries are invited with a printout of the script in English neatly typed in double space on A4 Sheets (in three copies) along with a CD of the corresponding file in MS Word, and other relevant particulars. No entry form is required.

The last date for submitting entries for the VIVADA Award for the best short fiction film script is extended to 31 December 2008. Entries should be sent to:

Kalpanirjhar Foundation
Government Housing Estate B, Ideal Association F-2
C I T Scheme VII M
Kolkata – 700 054
Contact person: Sandip Ray (9903152919)