Not long ago, Carrot Films came up with a delightful competition for budding filmmakers – the Lockdown Films Festival. The lockdown imposed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic had presented an opportunity for people to use it in a creative way. And that’s what gave birth to the Lockdown Film Festival. The theme also matched the occasion – document stories of common people dealing with the pandemic and giving their perspective to the situation.
The Lockdown Film Festival was a success, with an overwhelming number of entries from different parts of the country. The Minister for Information & Broadcasting Shri Prakash Javadekar had sent a note of appreciation to Carrot Films as well, for creating such a platform for young talent and for organising the festival.
Out of all the entries, 20 films were shortlisted by an eminent jury of professionals – Sharmila Tagore, Ratna Pathak Shah, Prahlad Kakar, Adil Hussain, Ken Ghosh, Nivedita Basu, Gautam Rode, Hiten Tejwani, Modhura Palit, Ida Ali, and Iqbal Niyazi. Filmmaker Aparna Sen was the chairperson of the Jury.
Speaking about the Lockdown Film Festival, Aparna Sen shared, “I was extremely delighted at the innovativeness of the films submitted. It was a test of creativity for the filmmakers to be able to do this within the confines of their homes and really, I had a hard time judging the entries.“
Taking the film festival a step further, the National Film Development Corporation will enable streaming of the selected short films from Carrot Films’ Lockdown Film Festival. The films will be available on NFDC’s very-own OTT platform.
Cinemas of India, as the platform is called, was created by NFDC by leveraging its diverse cinematic portfolio at the behest of the advent of digital distribution. The platform, which started its journey in 2012, houses the corporation’s classic titles. It has some of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning films on OTT. Cinemas of India represents India’s independent film and filmmakers, and you can find all of NFDC’s indie films and acquired content, most of which isn’t available anywhere else.
With a mix of documentaries, shorts and full-length features, Cinemas of India is available on a premium subscription of INR 149 per month, or INR 599 per year. Other than that, content can also be rented for INR 60 each for 72 hours.
With all of us stuck at home for a few more months atleast, this seems to be the perfect opportunity to go explore some of the hidden talents that India has to offer.