5th Chennai International Short Film Festival (CISFF)
18th to 24th February 2018
The Russian Cultural Centre, Alwarpet, Chennai.
The Festival was a grand success, and was one of the biggest dedicated short film festivals in India. It had an average foot fall of 250 people per day which is the highest recorded till date In Chennai. It had the participation of lot of Cinema Industry People for the first time. The screening and the sound quality was the best in the Country as it was done by Real Image Media Technologies who partner with more than 2000 theatres for screening.
The 5th Chennai International Film Festival screened short films belonging to various genres and languages from across the world. 371 Short films from 47 countries were submitted online for this edition of the Festival and around 127 films from 19 countries were screened at the festival. These short- films can be seen exclusively in theatres only and cannot be found on YouTube or digital freeware video-viewing platforms.
This year’s foreign film selection celebrated contributions from India, Germany, Austria, Russia, Spain, US, UK, China, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, Belgium, France, New Zealand, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands and Turkey.
To break the language barrier, movies in International Languages were subtitled in English.
The jury comprised of directors Pushkar&Gayatri, LokeshKanagaraj and MaddoneAshwin.
The Short films were divided mainly into 3 categories: Animation, Documentary and Fiction with awards across all categories. Total Cash Prize of INR 2,40,000 for a total of 10 awards were given to the winners and the runners. There is a MovieBuff Award this year with a cash prize of INR 10,000.
Entry was free of cost and open to all viewers above 18. An interaction session with a celebrity guest, took place every day during the festival with an aim to impart knowledge about film making to the film enthusiasts who attended the event.
Director K. Mohan Raja, Foreign dignitaries and Bureaucrats had inaugurated the Festival which was held on the 18th of February at 6 PM.
This week, around 25 films were screened everyday with celebrity interaction session each day having guests such as DheerajVaidy (director – Jil Jung Juk) ,Rathna Kumar (director – Meyadhamaan), Vijaykumar (director – Uriyadi), Sri Ganesh (director – 8 Thottakal), Sarjun (director – Lakshmi and Maa), Priyanka (scriptwriter of Maa), Abhishek Joseph George (actor), Sananth (actor) and ArolJothi (actor) who interacted with the audience on various topics related to cinema.
The valedictory function had artists and directors from the film fraternity such as athmika of meesayamuruku fame, meeramithun (8 thottakal), Daniel annie pope (kaathadi team), prakashraghavan and santoshKrishna(D 16) and Director Nithilan (KuranguBommai) who spoke about the opportunities in the short film industry and its growth over the past decade. The festival is organised by the Chennai Academy of Motion Picture, Mr. S.Kannan – President, Mr.Santhanam – Vice President and Vignesh Chinnadurai – Festival Director.
The winners are as follows:
SHORT FICTION:
1st place – Mr.MARK PLAYNE for the short film “2 By 2” (Turkey)
2nd Place – Mr.OMER DENIZ for the short film “MORTAL” (Turkey)
Special Jury Award – Mr.THINESH for the short film “A DAY PASSED” (India)
DOCUMENTARY:
1st place – Mr.TIM SWANSON for the documentary “TAMIL STORIES” (New Zealand)
2nd place – Mr.JOHNSON RAJKUMAR for the documentary “FIRE FLIES” (India )
Special Jury Award – Ms.HECTOR I. JIMENEZ for the documentary “DESDE AQUI.NAMASTE” (Mexico)
ANIMATION:
1st Place – Mr.RAFAEL SOMMERHALDER for the animated short film “AU REVOIR BALTHAZAR” (Switzerland)
2nd Place – Mr.ANDREAS FEIX for the animated short film “CITIPATI” (Germany )
Special Jury Award – Mr.JONATAN SCHWENK for the animated short film “SOG” (Germany)
Highlights of the 5th Chennai International Short Film Festival:
➢ 127 Short Films from around 16 countries were screened.
➢ Introduced Celebrity Interaction for the first time in CISFF for 5 days.
➢ There was a special focus on films from Germany, Hungary (Country Focus)
➢ There were films screened on all 7 days (18th to 24th February)
Guests came to the festival
18th February:
Mr.Mohan raja Director
Mr.VivekPrasanna Actor
Mr.RajSekerPandiyan CEO, 2D entertainment
Ms.Yulia.A.Antonova Deputy Consul – Russian Federation
Mr.RajeshSodhi Commissioner – GST
Ms.LeelaMeenatchi RO, Censor Board
Mr.AshokBabu Regional Passport Officer
Ms.MeeraMithun Actress, Miss South India
19th February:
Mr.Abhishek Joseph Actor
Mr.DHEERAJ VAIDY Director
20th February:
Mr.Rathna Kumar Director
Mr.Sananth Actor
21st February:
Mr.NithilanSwaminathan Director
Mr.Vijay Kumar Director & Actor
22nd February:
Mr.Sriganesh Director
Mr.Arul Actor
23rd February:
Mr.Sarjun Director
Ms.Priyanka Writer
24th February:
NithilanSwaminathan Director
Ms.Aathmika Actress
Ms.MeeraMithun Actress, Miss South India
PrakashRaghavan Actor
Santosh Krishna Actor
Daniel Anne Pope Actor