Official announcement of the shortlisted entries for the First International Film Festival for the Persons with Disabilities (IFFPD) 2015.
The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, officially announces the shortlisted entries to the “First International Film Festival for the Persons with Disability (IFFPD), 2015”, at an interactive Press Conference, at the PIB Hall, Shastri Bhavan, on Monday. This is for the first time that the Department, along with, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), is presenting this unique three-day film festival for persons with disabilities, at Siri Fort, New Delhi, from 1st to 3rdDecember, 2015.
The DEPwD, was carved out of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on 12.05.2012 to ensure greater focus on policy matters to effectively address disability issues and to act as a nodal department for greater coordination among stakeholders, organisations, State Governments and related Central ministries. The IFFPD 2015 is another milestone for the department in their goal of achieving inclusivity and empowerment for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). The film festival is a combined outcome of the tireless efforts of the Department and NFDC and the overwhelming response in terms of Festival entries has only strengthened the resolve of Department to hold further annual editions in the future.
Speaking on the occasion of the release of the official IFFPD 2015 shortlist, Shri Lov Verma, Secretary, DEPwD, briefed the media persons about how the festival was conceptualized by the department to honour the contributions of the persons with disabilities on the occasion of International day of Persons with Disabilities – which is commemorated worldwide on 3rd December, every year. He dedicated this film festival, in recognition of the spirit of the persons with disabilities and the festival will show case cinemas that open our world to their mind space, and sensitise on issue relating to disabilities.
The Secretary also briefed that IFFPD won’t be just another Film Festival as the Department will also be conducting different workshops on Day 2 of the Festival. The theme for workshops will include Children’s Workshop, workshop on film directing and screen writing etc.
Joint Secretary, DEPwD Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi, highlighted the objectives of IFFPD 2015 with an interactive presentation and emphasized that the Film Festival will go a long way in sensitizing public about issues faced by PwDs in their social life. Continuing further, he added that Inclusivity, Accessibility, Education and Technology were the wheels on which the motive of empowering PwDs will roll the much-needed change in the mindset of society. The presentation was followed by the screening of two short films which will be part of the IFFPD 2015.
Seaking on the occasion, Managing Director NFDC, Ms Nina Lath Gupta expressed her happiness in partnering the Department for this first-of-a-kind Festival conceptualized by DEPwD. Speaking on the role NFDC plays in promoting Good Cinema, she emphasized on the importance of cinema in a dual role – being the mirror of the times we live in and as one of the most effective awareness tool in the right hands.
The Call for entries initiated for IFFPD 2015 by NFDC saw a total of 541national and international movies being submitted before the deadline of 30th September 2015. The entries were called for three main categories (a) Feature Films, (b) Documentaries and (c) Short Films. The conditions for the festival entries specified that all films should be by and about people with disabilities that explore their lives and encourages discussion on the diversity of human experience. The list of entries was then further pruned to a shortlist of 110 movies which satisfied the above criteria and contained – 19 Feature Films; 64 Short Films; and 27 Documentaries.
A total of 40 films (16 short films, 14 documentaries and 10 feature films) have been finally selected for screening during 3-day film festival by an accomplished panel of curators from eminent background. The distinguished curators for IFFPD 2015 are Sudhir Mishra (Film Maker), Sameer Modi (Producer/Distributor short films), Arfi Lamba (Producer/Actor), Brahmanand Singh (Producer/Director), Svetlana Naudiyal (Independent Consultant for Festivals), Satish Kapoor (Director, ‘We Care’), and Satyen Bordoloi (Freelance Journalist).
Different movies from Indian, International and regional panorama have been meticulously chosen by these curators to create an atmosphere of awareness in the Festival with the films shedding light on the different categories of disabilities.
A curtain raiser with Press Meet will be held on 30th November 2015
The film festival which will comprise of Gala Screenings of films on disabilities both National and International repute will open at Sirifort on 1st December 2015. Eminent film personalities, actors, directors and many other distinguished names from the field of art and culture have already confirmed their presence for the 3-day festival and their presence will be a source of inspiration for the persons with disability.
The Opening Ceremony will be held on 01st December 2015 at 10:30 am at the venue of the festival which will be attended by distinguished dignitaries. “Yellow” a National award winning Marathi Feature Film will be the inaugural movie of the festival. The 40 chosen movies are an entertaining mix of a dozen Indian movies with regional flavours, as well as International film entries in English, German, Spanish, Russian, Armenian, Korean among the many others.
The Festival will come to a close on 3rdDecember in the Forenoon with an Awards distribution ceremony at the Sirifort Auditorium. IFFPD 2015 will felicitate the Best Director, and Best Film in each of the 3 categories of Films with cash awards, with the First and Second Runner Up receiving trophies and citations from the Department.
Best Film (Feature) – (Fiction Feature) – Rs 3 lakhs + Trophy + Citation
(Documentary-Feature) – Rs 2 lakhs + Trophy + Citation
Best Film (Documentary) – Rs 2.5 lakh + Trophy + Citation
Best Film (Short) – Rs 1 lakh+ Trophy + Citation
Best Director (Feature) – Rs 2.5 lakh+ Trophy + Citation
Best Director (Documentary) – Rs 1.5 lakh+ Trophy + Citation
Best Director (Short) – Rs 1 lakh+ Trophy + Citation
The interactive Press Conference also saw an engaging Q & A session in which media personalities quizzed the Festival organizing committee on the various aspects of IFFPD 2015. The session was also attended by senior officials from DEPwD, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and other Central government ministries. Representatives from organisations like ALIMCO, Hans Foundation and IPH – which have been actively involved in the disability sector and are the co-sponsors of IFFPD 2015 – were also present on the occasion.
The shortlisted films are attached for your kind perusal and information as annexure.
1st International Film Festival for Persons with Disabilities (IFFPD 2015)
List of selected Feature Films (Duration 1-3 Hours)
| S. No. | Name of the Feature Film | Name of the Director | Language | Country | Duration |
| Fiction Features | |||||
| 1 | Ship of Thesus | Anand Gandhi | Hind/English | India | 2hrs 20mins |
| 2 | Yellow | Mahesh Limaye | Marathi | India | 1hr 30mins |
| 3 | Chotoder Chobi | Kaushik Ganguly | Bengali | India | 1hr 49mins |
| 4 | Haridas | GNR Venkatesh Kumaravelan | Tamil | India | 2hr 45mins |
| 5 | The Window | Nikolay Nikolaychuk | Russian | Russia | 1 hr 28mins 3secs |
| 6 | The Beasts | Leo Basilico, Nicolas Longinotti, Pablo Rodriguez Pandolfi | Spanish | Argentina | 1hr 46mins 35secs |
| 7 | Birds of Passage | Olivier Ringer | French | Belgium | 1hr 24mins |
| Documentary Features | |||||
| 8 | Algorithms | Ian McDonald | Hind/English | India | 96mins |
| 9 | Shattered Minds | Jade Bryan | English | USA | 85mins |
| 10 | Ishaarey | Annelies Kusters | Sign language/Hindi/
English |
Germany | 1hr 20mins |
1st International Film Festival for Persons with Disabilities (IFFPD 2015)
List of selected Documentary Films (Duration 20-60 Mins)
| S. No. | Name of the Documentary Film | Name of the Director | Language | Country | Duration |
| 1 | Accsex | Shweta Ghosh | Hindi/English | India | 53.11mins |
| 2 | Indelible | Pavitra Chalam | Hindi/English | India | 60mins |
| 3 | The New Girl in Class | Amrita Dasgupta | Hindi/English | India | 52mins |
| 4 | Closer | Meghna Gulzar | Hindi/English | India | 35.8mins |
| 5 | Useless eaters – Luneburg 45 | Moritz Jakobi | German | Germany | 32.30mins |
| 6 | Some in,Some out | Olga Arlauskas | Spain | Spain | 42.52mins |
| 7 | Deaf Women Told Me | Marie-Andree Boivin | French | Canada | 56mins |
| 8 | The Steps of One Hand | Kioumars Samadi Tari | Iranian | Iran | 41.23mins |
| 9 | Goonga Pehlwan | Vivek Chaudhary,Mit Jani | Hindi | India | 44.57mins |
| 10 | Draw Hard | Jon Nix | English | USA | 20mins |
| 11 | It’s Cricket No? | Sudhir Aggarwal | Hindi | India | 30mins |
| 12 | Eyesight Without Eyes | Hayk Ordyan | Armenian | Armenia | 26mins |
| 13 | Rehearsal of Tolerance | Ebrahim Saeedi nejhad | Iranian | Iran | 40.47mins |
| 14 | The Silent Chaos | Antonio Spanò | English | Italy | 45min |
1st International Film Festival for Persons with Disabilities (IFFPD 2015)
List of selected Short Films (Duration 5-20 Mins)
| Duration – 5-20mins | |||||
| S. No. | Name of the Short Film | Name of the Director | Language | Country | Duration |
| 1 | Deafness | Khachik Vasilian | English/Russian | Ukraine | 13.40mins |
| 2 | Avi,La Petite Ballerina | Susan Santha Kerns | English | USA | 10.49mins |
| 3 | Glimpse of Heaven | Diego Robles | English | USA | 12.23mins |
| 4 | Feet in Sand | Subhash A V | Mute | India | 5.5mins |
| 5 | The Predators of Transylvania | Julia Kolenakova | English | Slovakia | 6.25mins |
| 6 | If I Don’t Lose, I’ll Lose | Jean St Clair | English | UK | 14.40mins |
| 7 | Two Friends | Nunna Sravan Kumar | Mute | India | 7.11mins |
| 8 | HELPLESS | Seokwon Han | Korean | Korea | 19.52mins |
| 9 | CODA | Melissa Mostyn | English | UK | 10.7mins |
| 10 | Crossing The Divide | Cathy Heffernan | English | UK | 16.12mins |
| 11 | Strangers | Brian Duffy | English | UK | 11.40mins |
| 12 | Fingertip | Basile Vuillemin | French | Belgium | 16.48mins |
| 13 | A Slice of Life | Lisa Kielmansegg-Kaan | German | Austria | 15.36mins |
| 14 | Some girls are bigger than other | Anja Kavic | Sebian | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 9.58mins |
| 15 | Pan | Véronique Duys | French | France | 9.30mins |
| 16 | The Big Decision | John Finn | English | UK | 16.17mins |
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