Call for entries: Indian Film Festival short film comp

The Indian Film Festival – Bollywood and Beyond has put out a call for entries for their short film continent-jumping competition.

The festival tours Australia and New Zealand is an annual celebration of Indian cinema; from Hindi blockbusters to Bengali arthouse, with the biggest stars of Indian cinema as special guests.

The competition is open to up and coming Australasian and Indian filmmakers. All films must be over ten minutes and carry the theme “Connections”.

The winner from Australasia will receive a trip to Mumbai, the home of Bollywood, while the winning Indian filmmaker will receive an invite and travel to Melbourne as a guest of IFF.

As well as screenings in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, winning films will go out to an audience of over two million via SBS in Australia, Triangle/Stratos in New Zealand and UTV Bindass in India.

IFF Director Mitu Bhowmick Lange said: “The Western Union Short Film Competition may be short in nature but it’s reach is long. It offers fabulous exposure and industry opportunities for the winning filmmakers. For instance, the 2011 winning Australian film, Adjust which looked at the experience of Indian Students in Australia was selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Competition Corner.”

Varun Sharma, director of Adjust said: “The competition is an amazing platform for all aspiring filmmakers to showcase their work and get it seen by big names from Australian and Indian film industries. Since receiving the honorary mention for my short film, I have benefitted tremendously from the media exposure and access to industry professionals that I could only have dreamt of in the past.”

New Zealand 2011 winner Rajneel Singh said: “The festival truly allows for Indian filmmakers to have a voice in this part of the world. My career has grown thanks to the exposure the festival gave me and from the trip to Mumbai. I’ve been developing several feature film projects with producers in India, Asia and back home in New Zealand and I’ve made vital international contacts in the world of distribution and financing.”

The competition is another step in a link between the Australian film industry and the lucrative Indian film industry, after Peter Castaldi and Anupam Sharma launched the Australian Film Festival of India to coincide with the Indian screen conference FICCI-FRAMES.

Entries close 25 December 2011. For more information, visit Indian Film Festival.