Indian Student Film Festival in Bangalore from Feb 3

Bangalore, Aug 2: A week-long Indian Student Film Festival (ISFF) will be held here from February three next, Festival Chairman and renowned litterateur U R Ananthamurthy said today.

Talking to newspersons here, he said the ISFF would be a platform for youngsters to display their skills, identify talented and budding artists and encourage them. It would offer a forum for student filmmakers across the country to showcase their films. Mr Ananthamurthy said a 11-member Advisory Committee had been formed, with himself as the Chairman, to work out the modalities for the festival, in which noted film personalities from India and abroad would be invited to deliver talks on different subjects.

The ISFF, slated to be an annual event, was a concept pioneered by Acethetik Consultants, a city-based event management company.

The eminent writer said ''the film industry is always on the look out for creative, new artistic talent and vision. The constant search of human creativity for more refined and powerful methods of artistic expression and communication has led to the creation of new media like music videos, abstract features, hybrid film and animation.'' Noted film maker T K Rajeev Kumar, who was also present, said it was proposed to award grants to ten film students to pursue their studies and produce films.

Mr Ananthamurthy said there were talents in rural and semi-urban areas and the need of the hour was to tap such talents and ISFF would initiate steps in this direction.

Acethetick Chief Executive Officer Krishna Menon, who was also present, said ''this initiative will instill confidence among youngsters willing to combine their creative talents with technology and are open for experimentation.''

UNI