The details and highlights of the 5^th International Kolkata Short Film Festival (IKSFF 2025) were announced in the presence of Suman Maitra, Phalguni Chatterjee, Arnab Riingo Banerjee, Rana Basu Thakur, Nabarun Bose, Jaya Seal Ghosh, Sourav Chakraborty, Festival Chairman, Saswati Guha Chakraborty, Festival Director and others.

The festival is organized by IKSFF.

The festival has more than 250 submissions from over thirty countries around the world.

This will be a six-day hybrid festival. The number of days of the festival had to be increased due to the huge number of submissions.

Arnab Riingo Banerjee said “Short films are the new trend. Every film starts with a small idea and then becomes a short film or a feature film. It is essential to support short films so that new filmmakers can get the chance to showcase their skills. We also get to learn so much from the young filmmakers. Festivals like this kind must be appreciated and supported by the audience”.

The online screening will be from 21^st to 25^th January on www.efilmzone.com from 5 pm onwards. This is a free-to-attend event. Viewers can access it with the code: IKSFF25.

The physical festival will be from 24^th to 26^th January at Rotary Sadan. The closing and award ceremony will also be held there.

There will be masterclasses and seminars on the 21^st and 22^nd of January.

Speaking at the event, Suman Maitra said “My silent short film Nishobdo is also a part of this festival and I am glad. I will also be making a feature film that will be my take on Meghe Dhaka Tara. The details of this will be announced at the closing ceremony of the festival”.

The jury panel consists of Arghyakamal Mitra, Dr. Mohan Das, Saana Norouzbeigi, Rajni Acharya, Shihyun Wang, Ashraf Shishir, Jaya Seal Ghosh, Nabarun Bose, Sandipan Roy and Dr. Anusha Srinivasan Iyer.

The Award categories at IKSFF 2025 are Best Short Film, Best Long Short Film, Best Editor, Best Director, Best Animation Short Film, Best Child Actor, Best Commercial, Best Actor, Best Concept, Best Music Video, and many more.

Jaya Seal Ghosh who had been associated with the festival since the first edition was proud of the way the festival has been getting popularity among the people. She wished more success to the festival and hoped it would be more popular in the coming editions.

Some of the other awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Late Jiban Guha Memorial Award, the IKSFF Bengal Cine Icon Award 2025, the Lifeline Excellence Award 2025, and the IKSFF Golden Voice Award 2025.

Kaash (If Only) is the opening film of the festival.

Some of the films that deal with sensitive issues are Robofauna, Rang, Distant Space, Peepal, Channa, Scoop of Ignorance, and others.

For more details, visit: www.iksff.co.in

Priyanka Dutta