Second edition of Kelvin Film Festival from November 9 to 11
Shillong, May 26: The second edition of Kelvin Cinema Festival (KCF) will be held from November 9 to 11 in the city.
The first festival held in 2019 was a game changer for cinema in Meghalaya and North East India.
Filmmakers under the banner Fraternity Art Cine Entertainment addressed a press conference on Friday to announce the festival.
Kelvin Cinema Festival (KCF) is named after the city’s once famed cinema hall to honour its memory after it was gutted by fire.
Kelvin Cinema Hall was founded by (Rai Bahadur) Jeevan Ram Goenka in 1926, the first talkies in Shillong, but it would take World War II to shape the future of cinema in erstwhile undivided Assam.
His son, Shankar Lall Goenka, steered the ship forward. It is to celebrate cinema and to keep the vision of his father alive that KCF is being presented by him and Jeevan Ram Mungi Devi Goenka Public Charitable Trust, in association with Fraternity Art Cine Entertainment Shillong (FACES), Dept Arts and Culture, Directorate of Information and Public Relations Govt of Meghalaya and Docskool, Kathmandu, Nepal.
In the KCF 2019 held in Shillong, 740 films were submitted. 477 films travelled from different parts of the country while 263 films came from North East India.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the global lockdown and the organisers had to halt their future plans.
Termed as bigger, bolder and more inclusive, the festival hopes to bring a change in film scene in Meghalaya.
Announcing the film festival, filmmaker Dominic Sangma said that KCF aims to highlight and showcase talent of North East India, and instil in aspiring filmmakers a sense of passion for cinema.
“Given there is no dearth of talent in Meghalaya and the region as a whole, we
aspire to become a platform for talent, in line with the Meghalaya State Film Policy Summit that was held earlier in 2023”, Dominic said.
He said additionally they encourage and welcome film industry entrepreneurs in the
North East to boost the nascent film industry with exciting ideas and contribute towards the development of the film industry in the state.
Short films
The festival is only applicable for short films and documentary films made by Indian filmmakers in any language. It should neither be less than 10 minutes nor exceed a total time of 30 minutes (including titles and credits).
KCF will consider selected films to be screened in North-East premieres.
In case the film has been screened in any part of NE India before the festival, it will not be considered.
As part of the festival, a short film competition will be held, where jury members will handpick shorts to be screened at the U Soso Tham
Auditorium, Shillong.
Submissions for this section is ongoing at FilmFreeway(https://filmfreeway.com/kelvincinemafestival). Rules and regulations for the festival, including fees and deadlines can be found here.
Trophies and a total cash prize of Rs 4 lakh will be given to winners for best film, best director, best actor (male and female), cinematography, editing and sound design.
Out of competition section
Also part of KCF 2023 is an out-of-competition section. The organisers have partnered with Docskool, Kathmandu to curate films from outside India. The carefully selected films will be showcased at the festival.
Docskool promotes cinemas beyond borders. This 90-minute slot of festival programming will present regional/international films from their “Something like a Film Festival” (SLFF) 2023 programme.
Border issue & inclusivity
“What is vision without inclusivity? To achieve this, we have another short film competition open only for filmmakers from Meghalaya as a village named Nongthymmai in Ri Bhoi in Assam- Meghalaya border is the focal point as it faces incursion from Assam”, Dominic , who hails from Nongthymmai, Ri Bhoi, said.
This is the ‘5 Minutes Film Competition’, where aspiring filmmakers can submit their shorts. Both fiction and non-fiction stories are welcome.
For this section, the topic is, “Environment and Border Issues” and filming should take place in and around Maikhuli, Pillangkatta area and Nongthymmai (Predominantly Garo village).
For this section, films should be submitted to faceshillong@gmail.com.
The last date of submission for this section is August 9, 2023. Total cash prize amounting to Rs 30,000 and a trophy will be given to winners in this section.
Dominic said the particular theme was chosen as the border area of Ri Bhoi faces hardships due to incursion from Assam and it had caused environment degradation especially due to quarrying and cutting of hills in Nongthymmai area.
“We look forward to engaging with the filmmakers and cinephiles of Meghalaya and North East India, in addition to ensuring connectivity with the movers and shakers of the film industry who will attend the festival in different capacities (filmmakers, producers and entrepreneurs)”, Dominic added.