India Film Project
 | |
| Industry | entertainment, festival |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder | Ritam Bhatnagar |
| Headquarters | India |
| Owner | Ritam Bhatnagar |
| Website |
indiafilmproject |
India Film Project is an annual filmmaking competition in India. Participants are given 50 hours to make a film after which a panel of judges select award winners. The competition has run each September since 2011.
Competitors form teams and are given a common theme to which they then write a script and shoot the films. They have a free choice of locations, equipment and actors. The teams are also responsible for post-production including editing and audio.[1]
History
India Film Project (IFP) was started by Ritam Bhatnagar in 2011 as the Ahmedabad Film Project, a competition for local filmmakers. In 2013 it was renamed the India Film Project, admitting entrants from other countries from 2014. The sixth edition held in September 2016 received entries from over 260 cities and 20 countries.
2011
The first Ahmedabad Film Project in 2011 received 86 entries from 18 cities. Filmmaker Sanjay Gadhvi was the jury member. More than 600 filmmakers participated in the event.[2] The theme for the film making competition was 'Small things in life'.[3] As founder Ritam says, "The motive of beginning this festival was to attract people towards filmmaking, considered a niche hobby back then". "The festival was meant to be a one-time activity, but the response was too good to make it an annual happening" he adds.
2012
The 2012 Edition saw more than 1200 filmmakers, 120 teams from 24 cities across India, competing against each other to win the title of Best Film. Well-known Filmmakers like Shoojit Sircar, Vikramaditya Motwane, Rajesh Mapuskar and Komal Nahta were part of the jury.[4] The theme 'Ingredients of Good Living' caught well with the filmmakers with some of the best films coming out of the competition.
2013
The 2013 Edition of India Film Project saw as many as 4200+ filmmakers from 40 cities across India and neighbouring countries. The film project went online by allowing participants to shoot films from their own cities and uploading online. The project extended their filmmaking hours from 48 hours to 50 hours. The project kicked of on September 20, 2014. Versatile and award winning filmmakers like Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nikhil Advani and Bejoy Nambiar served as the jury members. For the first time in India, an online film festival was a part of 2013 edition in association with NFDC, which allowed everyone to watch their favourite films online on their computer screen.[5] The winning films of 2013 edition received amazing response such that they were selected for Jaipur International Film Festival for special screening.[6]
2014
The 2014 edition of India Film Project was announced on 28 May. The festival claimed to reach out to filmmakers from smaller towns and other countries through previous year's winning film screenings. The official trailer of 2014 edition was revealed on June 4, which featured a military theme. The trailer was shot with extensive use of VFX and sent out the message 'Shoot before you get shot'.[7]
The jury for 2014 edition was announced in First week of August. The jury consisted of one of the Indian cinema's most prolific name Shyam Benegal and much acclaimed filmmakers Hansal Mehta, Omung Kumar and Umesh Shukla.[8]
More than 8500 filmmakers participated in the edition from 85 cities across the world, mostly comprising India, Singapore, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Dubai, USA and UK. Almost 500 films were made in the challenge over the 50 hours beginning on September 12, 2014.[9]
Axis Bank and Mountain Dew had extended support to 2014 edition so that more and more filmmakers can avail the benefit of this activity.
2015
The 2015 edition of India Film Project took the wings off festival to make it truly international. More than 14000 filmmakers are said to participate in this edition from 18 countries. The 5th season was announced on 15 May 2015 and the trailer was released on 15 June. The 2015 trailer was shot using a technique called visual illusion and garnered huge popularity amongst participants.[10]
The festival lined up some very prominent faces of Bollywood who came forward as jury members. Two times National award winners Ketan Mehta and Onir along with film critic Raja Sen took up the mammoth task of judging 700+ films. The festival also saw its first female jury member Guneet Monga who was much appraised by the festival fans.[11]
The festival saw huge participation from south Indian states such as Telangana, AP, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with huge filmmaking fans flocking to the event. Apart from India, participation was seen from USA, UK, Germany, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Pakistan, Malaysia and other countries. The filmmaking hours started on 18 September and ended on 20 September. Considering the huge scale of festival, the award ceremony is expected to have more than 3000 people attend the gathering.
2016
IFP 2016 was the festival's first edition to be held outside Ahmedabad. The festival officially moved to Mumbai as its new home ground. The 50 hour filmmaking competition saw more than 23,600 filmmakers who took part and made 1,220 films over the weekend. The theme announced was 'Top of the World'. The jury for the festival was Madhur Bhandarkar, Nagesh Kukunoor, Sriram Raghavan and southern super director Vetrimaaran. A good number of teams also participated from China, Dubai, USA and 16 more countries.
The grand finale held on 1 October at Mumbai saw some of the best content creators of country coming together. Tanmay Bhat, Ashish Shakya and Gursimran Khamba from All India Bakchod were seen along with Vasan Bala conversing about how web content in India was catching up pace and becoming a new entertainment destination for millenials.
Kanan Gill lead a conversation on 'How not to make a film' where he took the audience view of content creation. East India Comedy was represented by Sorabh Pant, Angad Singh and Azeem Banatwala, seen conversing with Raja Sen about importance of giving offence. Nikhil Taneja from Y-Films along with Anupama Chopra, Nidhi Bisht and Sameer Saxena from The Viral Fever conversed about the anatomy of making and distributing a web-series, a rather new form of content for youngsters. Karan Talwar and Anisha Rickshawalli joined Raja Sen in discussing about Split Personality on screen. Apart from conversations, the day also included a workshop on short storytelling and short filmmaking conducted by Terribly Tiny Tales and a screening of popular web films by Pocket Films.
The evening also saw Sumeet Vyas, Nidhi Singh of Permanent Roommates fame, Naveen Kasturia, Maanvi Gagroo and Amol Parashar from The Viral Fever. The event was hosted by RJ Megha, Malishka RJ and Rishi Kapoor. The event was attended by over 8,000 film enthusiasts from around the country.
Venturing into Merchandise
On 1 May 2016, IFP launched its own store of designer and unique camera accessories. Within few days of launch, the Camera straps were reported out of stock due to very high demand. Over next couple of weeks, IFP added more products such as Lens caps, Camera bags, Lens pouches, etc. to its existing online store. These products are also sold through other portals such as Flipkart, Paytm and Amazon. Over next two years, IFP plans to expand merchandise business as a separate vertical and introduce more than 500 products with various designs.
Previous Themes
| Theme | Films | Participants | Cities | Countries | Jury | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Small things in life | 86 | 620 | 14 | 1 | Sanjay Gadhvi, Ashish Kakkad |
| 2012 | Ingredients of good living | 121 | 1,510 | 22 | 1 | Shoojit Sircar, Vikramaditya Motwane, Komal Nahta, Rajesh Mapuskar |
| 2013 | India can change | 322 | 4,270 | 44 | 3 | Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nikhil Advani, Bejoy Nambiar |
| 2014 | Progress has many meanings | 619 | 10,600 | 122 | 11 | Shyam Benegal, Hansal Mehta, Omung Kumar, Umesh Shukla |
| 2015 | There is a twist in the end | 700+ | 14,400 | 184 | 18 | Ketan Mehta, Onir, Raja Sen, Guneet Monga |
| 2016 | Top of the world | 1,220 | 23,600 | 262 | 20 | Madhur Bhandarkar, Sriram Raghavan, Nagesh Kukunoor, Vetrimaaran |
Winners
2016
| Award | Film | Team Leader | Team |
| Platinum Film of the Year - Professional | Troll Life | Rahul Riji Nair | First Print Studios, Thirumullavaram |
| Gold Film of the Year - Professional | Gone with the Wind | Sagar Kalaria | Fikar Not Films, Rajkot |
| Silver Film of the Year - Professional | Binoculars | Sayan Dasgupta | Think BIG, Kolkata |
| Bronze Film of the Year - Professional | Jamoon | Nitesh Nanjudharadhya | ByTwo Films, Bengaluru |
| Best Film #5 - Professional | Vertigo | Dharma Teja | A story by Dharma Teja, Hyderabad |
| Platinum Film of the Year - Amateur | Nagraj in Mumbai | Ashish Madurwar | WildFlower Pictures, Mumbai |
| Gold Film of the Year - Amateur | Acme | Kundan Sad | Creat-E-Witty Media Notions, Nagpur |
| Silver Film of the Year - Amateur | Kshuda | Dhananjay Kode | Parshion, Nagpur |
| Bronze Film of the Year - Amateur | The Bridge | Chandrashekhar Mantha | Flowing River Productions, Mumbai |
| Platinum Film of the Year - Mobile | Fibonacci | Alok Sinha | Pixel Garden, Mumbai |
| Gold Film of the Year - Mobile | Black and White | Saiprasad S | Broken Puppets, Vellore |
| Silver Film of the Year - Mobile | Nithirai | Aswin Kandasamy | Layman Frames, Chennai |
2015
| Award | Film | Team Leader | Team |
| Platinum Film of the Year | Koothu | Vijay Velukutty | Madras Motion Pictures, Chennai |
| Gold Film of the Year | Iris | Sai Prasad S | Sastra Fotohub, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu |
| Silver Film of the Year | Kahaaniyan | Aditya Sharma | The Visual Architects, Pune |
| Bronze Film of the Year | Blank | Aman Khan | Blank, Mumbai |
| Best Film #5 | Photo Mohan | Sarath Chan | Blurr India, Trichy, Tamil Nadu |
| Best Film #6 | Passion | Aneesh George | Team Zero, Kannur, Kerala |
| Best Film #7 | 2+1=2 | Chetan Krishna | Jingchak, Bengaluru |
| Best Film #8 | Next Today | GS | Redsquad, Hyderabad |
| Best Film #9 | MJ | Rahul Riji Nair | First Print Studios, Kollam, Kerala |
| Best Film #10 | Khairat | Girish Atuvalaipil | Project Mayhem, Bangalore |
| Himalayan Mineral Water Challenge Winner | Winner | Viraj More | Timelight, Pune |
| Himalayan Mineral Water Challenge Runner Up | Runner up | Alok Sinha | Pixel Garden, Mumbai |
2014
| Award | Film | Team Leader | Team |
| Platinum Film of the Year | Audition | Vignash | Studio Untitled, Chennai |
| Gold Film of the Year | Axe Tree Me | Piyusha Khadakkar | Capricorn Graphix, Ahmedabad |
| Silver Film of the year | And then he thought | Ashish | LMB Productions, Pune |
| Bronze Film of the year | Laal | Amit Shetty | Power Drift, Mumbai |
| Best Film #5 | I am Bhushan | Nonidh Yadav | MVTV Productions, Dubai |
| Best Film #6 | Cycle | Nainesh Butti | Surat |
| Best Film #7 | Grafitti | Santosh | Think Cinema, Bengaluru |
| Best Film #8 | I am too | Pranav Borse | Pixcreed, Pune |
| Best Film #9 | Extra Mile | Kishan Chauhan | Area 55, Ahmedabad |
| Best Film #10 | Brotherhood | Abhishek Thakur | The Yellow Bulb, New Delhi |
| Recommendation Award | Lost and Found | Sagar Kalaria | Fikar Not Films, Rajkot |
| Mountain Dew Challenge Winner | Winner | Alok Sinha | Pixel Garden, Mumbai |
| Mountain Dew Challenge Runner Up | First Runner Up | Aditya Sharma | The Visual Architects, Ahmedabad |
| Mountain Dew Challenge Runner Up | Second Runner Up | Nainesh Butti | Fun Motion Pictures, Surat |
See also
References
- ↑ Sahu, Deepika (29 July 2013). "Shoot a film within 48 hours project goes global". The Times of India. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
- ↑ Desk, News (12 August 2011). "Ahmedabad Film Project: Open for Entries". DearCinema. DearCinema.com. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
- ↑ "Complete Details on India Film Project".
- ↑ Sahu, Deepika (15 September 2012). "Ahmedabad Film Project 2012 is back". The Times of India. The Times of India. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
- ↑ Desk, News (13 September 2013). "India Film Project to host online film festival with Nfdc". IMDB.com. IMDB. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
- ↑ Desai, Kinjal Shah (2 February 2014). "IFP Films at JIFF". DNA. DNA. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
- ↑ Desk, News (4 June 2014). "India Film Project 2014 Trailer". Youtube.com. YouTube. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- ↑ Desk, News (6 August 2014). "Entries open for India Film Project 2014". BoxOfficeIndia.com. BoxOffice India. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
- ↑ Lasrado, Svetlana (26 August 2014). "Registrations Open for India Film Project". The New Indian Express. The New Indian Express. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ↑ Desk, News (15 June 2015). "India Film Project 2015 Trailer". Youtube.com. YouTube. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
- ↑ Desk, News (17 September 2015). "South Indian Entries Flood IFP 2015". DnaIndia.com. DNA Ahmedabad. Retrieved 17 September 2015.