Kochi Metro Short Film Fest is an annual film festival held in Kochi, Kerala, devoted to short films made in Malayalam language. The short film pool consists of animation films, student films, experimental films as well as Documentary films. Established in the year 2014 by festival director Raveendran, a popular actor in Malayalam and Tamil language films at Gold Souk Grande Kochi. Malayalam actor Mohanlal is the festival chairman.

The festival was held between December 26, 2014 to January 11, 2015 with more than 360 short films participating in the event. Short movies by women directors was also shown for the audience, attended by Mohanlal, actress Manju Warrier and film director Sathyan Anthikad.

The short film festival was dedicated to promote the essence of Malayalam language and Kerala culture. The festival also provided opportunities and guidelines for the development of young film makers. were playing vital role on this fest. It also organised interviews with working industry professionals, live Q&A sessions with directors and producers as well as seminars, workshops and finally introduced newest film technologies like big screen video wall projection and walk through video projection.

The 2015 edition of the festival was held on December last week at Bolgatty Palace Island, Kochi where the place will be known as Media Island. The Island hosted photography, painting and poster designing contest; shows by film stars, dance show, music show, fashion show, DJ Party, art exhibition, management fest, tech fest, food fest and shopping festival. The fest was supported by Kerala Government Public Relations Department as well as Kerala Tourism Development Corporation[10] and unlike the first edition, this festival also organised competition for all section of short films. The festival supported Malayalam language short films, documentary films, animation films, ad film and music albums. It also provided enough opportunity to all short film makers around the globe to meet and exchange thoughts in a common platform and also conducts seminars, film work shop, and interaction with film makers and different personalities from various field.

The festival also started its UAE chapter from 23 September 2016 targeting the expatriates to provide a good platform for aspiring short film makers at the venues Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.[11][12] Two theme based contests namely Pravasam (on expat life) and Sneham (love) has been announced for experienced and non-experienced filmmakers respectively and 45 short films will be selected on U.A.E.' s 45th national day.

Awards & Prizes

Films qualifying first 10 positions will win prizes worth 795 USD each. This will be sponsored by Nikon and will be named as Nikon super 10 . The selected candidates will be asked to make one short-film of 10 minutes duration each, providing equipment support. And 3 will be selected as the final winners
First Prize – BD 1000 (US Dollar 2700) worth prizes.
Second Prize – BD 700 (US Dollar 1900) worth prizes.
Third Prize – BD 400 (US Dollar 1100) worth prizes

Rules & Terms

1. Kochi Metro Bahrain Short Film Festival is exclusively for GCC Filmmakers (participant must be a GCC citizen or a valid GCC Resident Visa holder, Visa copies of all technicians', artists' and director's should be attached with the entry form)
2. All submitting films must be made in GCC Countries
(Dubbing, editing and technical assistance can be done outside GCC).
3. The Entrant/s submitting the film must hold all legal rights for the submission, as well as all necessary clearances for public exhibition.
4. All entries must have been completed after 2017
5. Short Films uploaded and shared in social media or other online mediums will not be considered for the competition.
6. Entries of Non-English films should have English subtitles.
7. Multiple entries are allowed. You can submit more than one film to the same category. But keep in mind the entry fee must be paid for each one.
8. Entry fee will be BD 20 (US Dollar 55) per film, which could be given to our GCC admins along with the filled entry forms.
9. Films must be sent through FTP (File Transfer Point) only. No DVD or YouTube link will be entertained.
10. The last day for submitting application will be 15th August ’18 . The late entries will be accepted until August 31st, with an additional penalty fee of BD 5 (US Dollar 15) along with Entry Fee, after which the entries would be closed.
11. Duration of the short films shall not exceed 20 minutes including the beginning and end titles and credits. The minimum duration should be 5 minutes.
12. Along with the entry forms, the film’s poster, director’s passport size photo, 2 shooting stills, 2 phone numbers, 2 email IDs and movie’s synopsis to be included mandatorily.
13. Only short listed films will be screened, of which 15 filmmakers will get entry for Final competition and would be honored with Nikon Gears (Camera, Lenses etc). First 10 films will be considered as “Nikon Super 10” and will get BD 300 (US Dollar 800) worth prizes.
14. 15 filmmakers qualifying the first round, should submit a different Short film(Maximum duration of 10 minutes) individually for final competition.
15. First Prize – BD 1000 (US Dollar 2700) worth prizes.
Second Prize – BD 700 (US Dollar 1900) worth prizes.
Third Prize – BD 400 (US Dollar 1100) worth prizes
16. A screening committee determines which films shall be exhibited, submissions are not guaranteed to be shown. All decisions of the committee are final
You may contact the below numbers and addresses to obtain any information pertaining to the fest, registration, entry form or movie submittals.