Closing Ceremony of Calcutta International Short Film Festival (CISFF 2020)

 

• Ritwick Chakraborty bags the Soumitra Chattopadhyay Memorial Award for ‘The Hunger Artist’
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Calcutta International Short Film Festival is an event hosted by the Independent Film Society (IFS) to create awareness and space for dialogue on short films among the regular film audiences and encourage filmmakers to express their audio-video art through this medium. The Festival was held online from 18th to 20th December 2020.

This year’s festival hosted an array of cinematic brilliance with 96 films being selected in the competition section, curated across the world. Out of these 96 films, 21 films are selected from across India and 9 films are from Bengal. The films have been selected under four different categories: Short Fiction, Short Animations, Experimental Shorts and Documentary Shorts.The award for the various categories were announced on 20th December 2020 during the closing ceremony.

All the selected films were screened online and a specialized jury selected a film/ individual from various categories for their cinematic brilliance. Following is the list of CISFF-2020 award winners, directors and their films who were awarded with a laurel/certificate.                   

AWARD	WINNER	DIRECTOR
Best Short Fiction- International	Nooreh [India]	Ashish Pandey
Best Short Fiction - International	Roqaia [Afganisthan]	Diana Saqeb Jamal
Best Short Animations	Thrall [Bosnia & Herzegovina]	Igor Đurić
Best Experimental Shorts	Field of Infinity [United Kingdom]	Guli Silberstein
Best Documentary Shorts	Kamali [United Kingdom]	Sasha Rainbowm
Best Director	Zhannat Alshanova	Paola Makes a Wish [Switzerland]
Best Acting	Marina Symeou	Patision Avenue [Greece]
Best Editing	Tessel de Vries	Under the Skin [Netherlands]
Best Cinematography	Sushil Gautam	Nooreh [India]
Best Script	Yorgos Angelopoulos, Thanasis Neofotistos, Pavlos Sifakis	Patision Avenue [Greece]

The jury of the festival were:

Supriyo Sen	Documentary
Yong -woo Kim	Documentary
Daniel Ebner	Fiction
Edvinas Pukšta	Fiction
Marina Richter	Fiction
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki	Fiction
Wim Vanaker	Fiction
Céline Desrumaux	Animation
Chris Robinson	Animation
Madhuja Mukherjee	Experimental
Wolfgang Lehmann	Experimental

Apart from the mentioned categories, a special honorary award has been constituted that will award talented individuals from across India every year. This year the award was dedicated in memory of legendary actor Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay. The award was received by none other than the very talented Ritwick Chakraborty for his short film 'The Hunger Artist' produced by Fatfish Entertainment & directed by Kamaleshwar Mukherjee which has won several International acclaims and was screened in the festival.

An elated Ritwick said: ‘It is such a great pleasure to receive this award. I really feel honoured, I’ve been a big admirer of him and receiving an award dedicated to him makes it more special. I would also like to thank Kamaleswar Mukherjee & Fatfish Entertainment for casting me in the film. All my best wishes to CISFF and I wish they continue the festival every year and make a platform for good cinema.’ said Ritwick Chakraborty. 

Poulomi Bose, daughter of late actor Soumitra Chatterjee congratulated Ritwick & the Festival team“My father was a big supporter of every kind of film societies and was also a member of many such societies. He always encouraged everyone to come forward and work towards good cinema. He was especially fond of the format of short films. He had a lot of faith in Kamaleshwar Mukherjee’s sensibilities and aesthetics as a director. It is really appropriate that this time the inaugural film was by him. Lastly my father was a very big fan of Ritwick Chakraborty, he thought that Ritwick was one of the finest actors in his generation and one of the finest actors who had been working in Bengal currently. He really felt that Ritwick’s performances were so nuanced, his acting was so subtle and so right for cinema. He would have had been very proud seeing him receive the award. We as a family are very honoured that they have constituted an award on my father’s name and we wish them all the best and hope they continue this festival every year.”

After the jury citation and award announcements, there was a deliberation by programming director Ankit Bagchi and IFS Vice President Anamitra Roy. It was followed by Shehnai recital by Ustad Hassan Haider Khan. It was then followed by announcements of submissions for CISFF- 2021 by festival director Shubhankar Mazumdar.

The festival ended on a high note with Independent films getting a big platform, provided a platform and ecosystem to short filmmakers from all over India, highlighted the need for more such forums to encourage filmmakers in India and to have festivals dedicated to short filmmakers.

Watch the closing ceremony here: https://www.facebook.com/CISHORTFF/videos/231241061810541/

About IFS

Calcutta International Short Film Festival is an event hosted by the Independent Film Society (IFS) to create awareness and space for dialogue on short films among the regular film audiences and encourage filmmakers to express their audio-video art through this medium.

Independent Film Society (IFS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting alternative films and independent filmmakers; promote international film and culture, and bring about cultural exchange; and establish a multicultural dialogue among cinephiles belonging to diverse cultures, religions, and nationalities. It is managed by its members and follows the norms and guidelines laid by the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), the umbrella body of film-screening societies in India.