'Digital India' to be theme of Intl children's film festival

New Delhi: The 19th International Children's Film Festival of India (ICFFI), to be held in Hyderabad from November 14 to 20, will have Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Digital India' initiative as its theme.

Officials said the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI), which is organising the festival along with the Telangana government, is also planning a simultaneous screening of children's films in nine districts of the state.

The 19th ICFFI has already received over 1204 entries, the highest ever. The festival had attracted 894 and 748 entries in the two preceding years. This year all entries have been sourced by CFSI directly for the first time and no curator or outside agency was hired. The 19th International Children's Film Festival is unique in many ways.

We will have Digital India as the theme of this festival. We had called for entries in April 2015 and have received 1204, the record number. Entries include feature films, short films and for Little Directors, which came from 80 countries, CFSI CEO Shravan Kumar said.

Earlier this month, a meeting of the Organising Committee of the festival was held in Hyderabad where Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sunil Arora and Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary, Goverment of Telangana, reviewed the preparations in the presence of CFSI Chairman Mukesh Khanna.

Officials said in the coveted Little Directors section, where films made by children are screened, over 180 entries including those from India, Argentina, UAE, Russia, Taiwan, Belgium, Australia and Slovakia have been recieved.

They said it is for the first time that international entries have been received in Little Directors section. CFSI was setup in 1955 and since then it has produced, exhibited and distributed over 250 films for children including feature films, short films, animations, television episodes and documentaries.

PTI