​​The Community Digital Storytelling Festival (CDSTF) in Bangladesh is a unique and innovative annual event that aims to promote and celebrate the art of storytelling through the use of portable electronic devices. The festival is organized by the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication at Daffodil International University, is a student-led initiative, independent, volunteer-led storytelling festival, showcasing different genres of stories, including journalistic stories, fiction, non-fiction, animation, and documentary, among others, shot entirely on smartphones.

Awards & Prizes

Independent Category:
Anyone from any part of the world can submit digital stories. There is no duration limit for this category. The selected stories will be demonstrated at the festival.

Theme: Open
Type: Screening category

DIU Best Community Digital Story Category:
Only university students from all around the world can submit under this category who are under 30 years of age. The length of the story will be no more than five minutes. The selected stories will be demonstrated at the festival and will be awarded the DIU Best Community Digital Story Award.

Theme: Colors of Bangladesh
Type: Competition category

One-minute Category:
Students from 10 to 12 classes from Bangladesh are welcome to join this category. The selected stories will be screened at the festival, and the best story will receive the JMC Aspiring Storyteller Award.

Theme: Open
Type: Competition category

Journalism Category:
Journalists throughout Bangladesh are invited to participate in this category. A single digital story of up to five minutes can be submitted for this category. The selected stories will be screened at the festival, and the best story will receive Best Digital Story Award.

Theme: Constructive Journalism
Type: Competition category

Rules & Terms

Production rules:

i) All stories must be shot on a mobile phone. Production equipment, lights, tripod, boom, and sound equipment are permitted.
ii) Additional desktop editing software can be used for post-production purposes. ​
iii) All submissions must be original production. It should not violate the copyright issue. The Community Digital Storytelling Festival and its members are not responsible for any infringement of copyrights.
iv) Any submission in another language (not in English) must be subtitled in English. Otherwise, the submission will be automatically disqualified.
v) By Submitting stories to the CDSTF participants agree to the reproduction and dissemination of their content for display and promotion in different formats of media.
vi) Political, nudity, promotional, extreme violence or racist content is not allowed.
vii)There is no entry or registration fee. (Any kind of individual donation to run the festival is encouraged.)
viii) There is no duration limit for the Independent category.
ix) The story length should not exceed 5 minutes for the DIU Best Community Digital Story Category.
x) The story duration must not exceed 5 minutes for the Journalism Category.
xi) The story must be 1 minute long for the One minute category.
xii) All Director(s) are requested to us #CDSTF #CDSTF2024 #DIU_CDSTF as our official hashtags for Social Media posts.

Participation Rules:

i) Directors/makers of the films/stories can be single or in groups (maximum four persons).
ii) Anyone on behalf of the directors/makers can also submit films.
iii) Maximum of two stories can be submitted by each director.
iv) For the DIU Best Community Digital Story and One-minute category, the participants must have a valid student ID card.
v) ​​Films/stories screened or participated in other festivals/competitions are also welcome.