The 14th edition of the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF) concluded on Sunday evening at Suchitra Film Society in Bengaluru.
I’m not a Robot directed by Victoria Warmerdam, a Dutch film from the Netherlands won the best international film award.
Chidananda Naik’s Cannes Film Festival winning Kannada short film, Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know bagged the first prize in the Indian competition section.
Speaking to DH, Chidananda expressed his joy at winning an award at BISFF. “It feels like home,” said the filmmaker. “This is a Kannada film. Everybody other than Kannadigas had watched it so far. It feels great to see people from here watching the film and loving it,” he added.
Punith Sakhya’s When the Goat Swallowed the Elephant won top prize in the Karnataka competition section. “This was an unexpected win because so many other films in competition were great. Only when a lot of people started speaking about the film, I was hopeful of an award,” Punith told DH.
Punith is also the writer of Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know. When the Goat Swallowed the Elephant is his first film as a director.
Marathi film Me Raani directed by Shivani Mehra won the first prize in Women Cinema Collective competition.
The festival opened on Thursday, August 15 at Suchitra Film Society. Filmmaker Jeo Baby of The Great Indian Kitchen and Kathal — The Core was the chief guest.
Apart from film screenings, sessions like "First shorts to first features", a panel discussion with first time feature filmmakers, a masterclass with well-known make-up artist Ramakrishna Kannarpady were some of the interesting sessions at BISFF.
Ramesh S, who has been attending the festival for about 10 years now said the films taking part in the International competition were of superior quality. “The kind of storytelling and production value of the films is top-notch. There is a lot to learn from them,” he opined.
The Feast and My Father is Afraid of Water were some of the best films Ramesh watched at the festival.
Writer and film buff Chandraprabha Katari who has been attending the festival for about eight to nine years thinks the quality of Kannada films over the years has improved drastically. Medicine and The Fourth Man were other films that impressed Katari at the festival.