Mumbai: After its phenomenal success in 2020, ShortsTV Best of India Short Film Festival, is now open for entries for its much awaited fourth edition. Brought to India by ShortsTV, the first and only 24/7 linear and OTT HD TV channel dedicated to short form video entertainment, Best of India Short Film Festival is dedicated to put Indian filmmakers on the global entertainment map.

The previous edition saw an overwhelming response with 2000+ entries which was 50% higher than the 1^st edition. It also saw participation from Bollywood’s leading actresses and directors including Vidya Balan, Soha Ali Khan, Sayani Gupta, Ronnie Screwvala, among others, the festival is Live again to open new opportunities for filmmakers across the country. The ShortsTV Best of India Short Film Festival shortlists top 5 films from the entries. These shortlisted films win a theatrical release in Hollywood which qualifies them for Oscar® consideration. The five shortlisted films will also receive prize money totalling $2,500 and are eligible for a television broadcast deal on ShortsTV.

Over the course of previous three editions, the Festival saw a rise in participation from female filmmakers which increased from 9% to 16% in the Third Edition. Another emerging trend has been the surge in submission of regional language short films, that are vying for centre stage. Among them are short films in Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, and Telugu.

Commenting on the launch, Carter Pilcher, Chief Executive, ShortsTV said, “We are overjoyed to inaugurate the fourth edition of the ShortsTV Best of India Short Film Festival. Despite the pandemic, last year saw filmmakers at the height of creativity, with a zeal to produce some of the most invigorating short films we’ve ever seen from India. This year we are looking forward to releasing again some of the year’s fascinating short format stories.  Short films are the best movies in showbiz.”

Tarun Sawhney, President – Asia, ShortsTV & Festival Director said, “India has some of the most creative story tellers and we want to take these amazing stories to a global audience. We have also observed a huge surge in submissions of regional language short films in Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, and Telugu apart from Hindi. It highlights the growing affinity for short films among Indian audiences at large, in addition to the mainstream Bollywood. We are excited for the Fourth edition of the ShortsTV Best of India Short Film Festival and look forward to making it an even bigger success this year.”

The winner of the 2020 edition was ‘Natkhat’ featuring leading Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, co-produced by Vidya Balan & Ronnie Screwvala and written by Shaan Vyas & Annukampa Harsh. Subscribers can watch and enjoy the previous years shortlisted and winning short films such as Shunyata, Trapped, Wolf of Chawl Street, etc on ShortsTV. 

To be eligible for the competition, entries need to be “narrative” live action short films with a total running time of 40 minutes or less where either the writer, director or producer is from India and the film’s final form is in High Definition (HD) or DCP.

Key dates for the competition are as follows:

• Last Date for Submission: 15^th July 2021
• Winner announcement: October 2021