15th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival-26 is an amalgamation of unleash cinematic creativity & madness of cine-goers of beautiful city of Kolkata. The Kolkata city is the hub of Bengali Cinema, a culturally rich & destination of many budding filmmakers since past century. The festival objective is to give momentum to the short cinema & to foster the growth of new breed of filmmakers.

The festival is dedicated to serve the short filmmakers specifically from west Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Orissa along with short film makers from India & world.

The humble journey of KSIFF has began in year 2012 to mark the 100 years celebration of Indian cinema & to salute the contribution of the Bengali film industry towards the development of cinema in India. The 2012 to 2025 editions of festival were huge success with participation from all over India & foreign nations and are the trendsetter festival in India & now in huge demand among young filmmakers.

The festival provide platform to aspiring and professional filmmakers for showcasing their talent with networking & marketing opportunities in film industry. The festival also hosts master classes & short film market. The festival objective is to create short films culture, promotion of upcoming filmmakers, developing sources of revenue generation for short films and to make short film making a commercial enterprise.

Awards & Prizes

KSIFF-26

Production Awards
Best Short Film
Best Animation
Best Documentary
Best Music Video
Best Web Series
Special Festival Mention
Honorable Jury Mention
Best Director
Best Ad Film

Creative Awards
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Screenplay
Best VFX

Performance Awards
Best Actor
Best Actress

Music Awards
Best Original Music
Best Background Music

Rules & Terms

Rules and Regulations:

15th Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival-2026

1. Every official selected film in KSIFF will enjoy following benefits-

Promotion & Marketing:

-Listing on fest website in official selection section.
-Lifetime dedicated film page on fest website in catalogue.
-Film team video interviews will be published in Filmmaker’s Cut and promoted on social media.
-Film Pitch video will be published in Film Market and promoted among industry professionals.
Film article in News & blog on festival website.

Film Market & Distribution:

-Miniboxoffice Film Market subscription for 03 months.
-Film Distribution, Sales, Pitching & networking opportunities.
-Personal page, project listing & future opportunities.

Recognition & Awards:

-Every submitted film will get certificate of participation.
-Every officially selected film will get Certificate of Excellence- Official Selection certificate.
-Every Award Winner will get Certificate of Excellence- Award Certificate & Trophy.
-Every festival attendee will get festival mementos.

Feedback & Criticism:

-Festival provide a unique opportunity for every filmmaker to get Jury score sheet in order to understand ‘how the movie performed in festival’ and for scope of improvement.
-Audience interaction after film screening.

Learning & Exchange
-Master Classes on various current topics & trends.
-Culture & business exchange with fellow filmmakers.

2. Films must be subtitled in English if language is other than English and Hindi.

3. Year of production & accepted movie duration:

Year of production: Jan-2024 onwards
Short Film, Documentaries & Animation: up-to 60 min
Music Videos: 2-8 min & ad film- any duration

4. Films participated in KSIFF-2012 to 2025 are not eligible for participation in 2026.

5. The decision of the Jury will be final and can’t be challenged.

6. KSIFF-26 stages/process:
• Entry submission as per rules & regulations.
• Notification of shortlisted films by the festival office on 03 July 26 and late submission notification on 07 July 26.
• Delegate registration to attend KSIFF-26. All filmmakers must have registered as delegate to attend the festival. Hospitality charges are applicable for filmmakers & attendees, which include lunch, tea/coffee with cookies & master classes.
• Festival movies screening & workshops followed by award ceremony on 19 July 2026 at Kolkata, India.

7. Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival-2026 does not take any type financial commitment for the expense incurred on the correspondence by the participant. All Travel, Lodging & Boarding and other miscellaneous expenses will have to be borne by the participant himself for attending the festival. No request for the same will be entertained.

8. Once the film submitted can’t be withdrawn in any circumstances, however festival director reserve the rights to disqualify any film on certain grounds.

9. By submitting movie to Kolkata Shorts International Film Festival-2026, filmmaker/producer takes the whole responsibility of copyright issues of music, script and other creative and technical aspects of film.