Shimla, Dec 25
The Sixth edition of International Film Festival of Shimla started today through virtual medium on Facebook Pages of IFFS & Language, Art and Culture Academy of government of Himachal Pradesh.
Festival Director, Pushp Raj Thakur said in his inaugural speech that this year International film Festival of Shimla received entries from 32 countries in  four different categories viz. feature films, short films, documentaries and animations.
The Jury for the film festival shortlisted 136 films out of which best film in each category got screened in 6th edition of festival today. The advisory board member and former Director General of Films Division Mr. V.S. Kundu said that IFFS has a taken a long leap in last 5 yrs and is only international festival organized in Northern India.
Technical Advisor of the festival Uttam Prakash Thakur from Utah United States said that that online edition of this festival has made it possible to reach globally.
In panel discussion  session Sarv Chetan katoch associate professor of English Literature, Delhi University who was earlier fellow at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies put light on creativity in Indian Cinema. His book ‘The screening reel- reclaiming swaraj through Rachnatmak Hindi cinema, is the comparative study of Indian Cinema.
Rajesh James who is an award winning documentary film maker from Cochin Kerala said that regional cinema in India is producing good films. Malyaali cinema is doing well in this race. This year the malyaali film Jallikattu is Oscar entry  from India.
Bilal Tahir who is CEO of Cine Port International Media said that your job is not finished when you make a film. After that you need a great effort and your long association to promote your film on different platforms.
 He elaborated on distribution of films that how online platforms has made it easy for an independent filmmaker to distribute it globally and reach to the masses through social media.
Nigel Dean a filmmaker from Australia said that  festival sound important for a filmmaker because it is a forum where opportunities for interactions are there and you can exchange
 ideas in such platforms. Due to pandemic it was difficult this year but international film festival of Shimla has provided platform to the filmmakers for discussion.
‘I am gonna tell God everything’, a short film in Arabic by director Dev Pin from United States was the inaugural film of the festival. Beside this ‘Unbinding’ a short film from Haryana directed by Maurya,’ Boundary less Night’ an animation film by Li- Wei-Hsu from Taiwan, ‘The Bomb’  short film from Madhya Pradesh directed by Vipul Wadekar , ‘Colours Green’ a music video
inTamil directed  by A.K. Srikant; Kalawa, a short  film from Gujarat directed by Kaushik Grarasiya, ‘Pullu’ a Malyalam feature film  directed by Riaz and Paravin from Kerala was screened on the first day of the festival.
