Frequently Asked Questions
About Festival

The Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2025 will be held from August 7 to 17. OTT screenings will begin on August 7, and theatrical screenings will take place from August 15 to 17.

The Bengaluru International Short Film Festival will take place in multiple theaters across Bengaluru. In addition, we will have virtual access (OTT screenings) for the viewers for selected films.
 
The festival started in Bangalore in 2010.
Explore all announced films on our website. The full lineup will be available on our website and official social media handles.
Films with running times of less than 30 minutes are classified as Shorts. Films that are 30 minutes or longer are classified as Features. We DO NOT accept feature films. You should select your submission category based on what the final projected running time of the film will be, including credits.
We receive film submissions from across India. How many local shorts and feature films are showcased depends primarily on the quality and quantity of eligible films received, and the available screening slots.
To find out whether your film has been selected or not, please visit our website or our social media handles. We will also contact you via email. Please make sure that the email address you provided on your application is operational at that time. If your email address changes after you’ve filled out the application, please update us with the new email. We shall not be held responsible for any failed notification.
The jury goes through all films submitted and selects the best of them for the competition section. The next best films will be selected for screening in the non-competition section.
Only persons above 18 years can apply for a Delegate Pass. A Delegate Pass is not transferable.

Delegate passes can be availed at all the venues. Virtual screening passes can be availed by clicking on the link given on the homepage. You can also collect them at the venue during the festival.

You should have received an email upon registration. If you do not see any in the inbox, please check your spam folder. If you’re still experiencing issues, please contact us at techteam@bisff.in

or use the chat option on the website.

All payments are non-refundable for any reason, including but not limited to illness, acts of God, or travel-related problems. Passes are non-transferable and are the property of BISFF.

Not all Festival films will be available on our OTT platform. Please check the list of films that will be available for virtual screening.

Yes, the films will have English Subtitles (closed captions).

Yes, you can purchase the combined Venue+OTT pass for both in-person and virtual admission.

Each in-person pass is non-transferable and can only be used by the owner of the pass at any given time.
Live events will not be available to watch on Apple TV, Firestick, or Google Chromecast. To participate in the Q&A during a live event, you will need to watch on a computer to use the chat feature within the player. You can also watch live events on a tablet or smartphone. However, these devices will have limited functionality in the chat.
Yes. You may join the session or Livestream as long as it is underway.
Yes, the recordings for the Forum sessions will be available for the duration of the Festival here:
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
We greatly appreciate your sharing info about BISFF’s online festival. We recommend you share BISFF newsletters and social media posts with your friends and family or with your social media followers.
Please contact us to discuss the opportunities available. Our program, on-screen and venue packages are available to fit most budgets.

Yes. We offer tech support via phone from 10 am – 6 pm leading up to the Festival and from 11 am – 9 pm during the Festival
at +91 9886320518

To make a donation, you can contact us at either hello@bisff.in or bisffblr@gmail.com

Please note this pass is only for online screenings. Please use the same ID to log in and watch the films. Multiple logins are not accepted.

Streaming simply refers to watching a film using your internet connection (instead of downloading a file to your computer). It’s immediate and available on demand with any device connected to the internet.
Compatible Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 7 or later, Apple Mac OS 10.12 or later, Chrome OS
Compatible Browsers: Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari (for Mac). We recommend using the latest version of your browser. Internet Explorer is not supported.
You can also watch films on Android tablets and phones using Chrome, and on iPhones and iPads using Safari.

Most films in the festival are available to stream from August 07 – 17, beginning at 12:00 AM on August 07. Access to some films will be limited to a few days within the festival period; please check individual film listings for specific details.

Yes, you can pause, rewind and revisit the films while streaming. You’ll have access to all the films streaming online during the festival dates, excluding a few. The exceptions will be indicated on the films’ pages.
Films will be available only in India. All the films streaming online will be geo-blocked to India.
We use adaptive bitrate streaming, meaning the streaming quality will automatically adjust to your internet speed. If your internet connection is poor or inconsistent, you may experience problems during playback. If you’re on Wi-Fi, try moving closer to your router.
Please note that this pass is only for Theatre screenings. You must carry your Delegate Pass issued by the Festival. Without these requirements, you will not be permitted to watch the film. Food and beverages are not included in the Delegate Pass.
In case of a lost delegate pass, a duplicate delegate pass will not be issued. You will not be permitted to watch a film without your delegate pass.
Delegates will be allowed inside the screening hall only 15 minutes before the screening on a first-come-first-seated basis. No delegates are allowed in the screening hall once the seats are full.
Yes, there will be select in-person filmmaker conversations or post-screening Q&As.
Our website will have most of the updated information. We’ll also post and live stream different content on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you aren’t already following us, please do so!

No, we encourage filmmakers of all ages to submit their work. However, we do have a separate category specifically related to young/student filmmakers. All submitted films will compete against each other for the available slots in each program. If you are under the age of 18, a student, and if your film is accepted, we will require signed, written permission from your SCHOOL before we can screen your film. Students also get a concession for film submission.

You may submit as many films as you’d like. We do not offer reduced rates in fees for multiple submissions. If you submit three films, you must pay the submission fees for all three of them. Please do not submit multiple projects on the same LINK. If we receive a submission with multiple films on one link, we will only consider the first film included.

We will accept submissions that have already premiered in any film festival. But, your film’s premiere status will be taken into consideration when final programming decisions are made.

A couple of reasons motivated the inclusion of our submission fee. From our experience with earlier seasons, free submissions generated a large number of spam submissions and/or submissions that did not fit the criteria mentioned in the call. We are a volunteer-run organisation and the investment in terms of time to weed out and disqualify these entries was significant. It is hoped that requiring a submission fee would encourage filmmakers to make sure the films they submit match the required criteria. The second reason for levying the submission fee is for a source to fund the artist/exhibition fee we pay to the filmmakers whose films are selected to screen at the festival.

After completing the online application, you will have to provide a link to the uploaded film (part of the application form).

We only accept submissions via FilmFreeway and other online platforms
We accept a low-quality screener for submission on Filmfreeway. However, if your movie is selected for screening at our festival, we will require an HD file.
No. We only accept digital copies of your film sent via Vimeo, Youtube, and other video streaming or downloadable sites. The file size must be less than 2GB. Once your upload is complete, you MUST view the uploaded file in its entirety to ensure everything is in order.
In almost all cases, this is determined by the primary source of the film’s funding. If 50% or more of the film’s financing came from sources within INDIA, it qualifies as an INDIAN Film. If more than 50% of the film’s financing came from international sources, it qualifies as an International Film. Please select your submission category based on the primary source of financing. We do reserve the right to make a final judgement call based on several other factors, such as the primary shooting location, language(s) spoken in the film, and the nationalities of key members of a film’s cast and crew.
We require that all films that contain significant non-English dialogues include on-screen English subtitles. We prefer English films to also have English subtitles, so our audience can follow the conversation.
Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to contact each applicant individually if we do not receive their film. Kindly, make sure you follow up with our office for the same.
We will make every effort to play your movie, but if we are unable to view your film, we will attempt to contact you to request another link/copy using the primary contact information that you provided on your application. However, there is no guarantee that we will get your replacement link/disc in time, and we must give preference to those who sent in a working link. For this reason, we ask you to make sure your link plays all the way through BEFORE you submit.
If your film is short (less than 30 minutes in length), it is eligible even though it has been broadcast on television. However, once it gets selected for the festival, the movie has to be removed from online channels ts ill the end of the festival.
Sending replacement cuts after you have already submitted a prior version of the film can cause a great deal of confusion throughout the screening process. It is also unfair to those who sent in a cut before their selected submission deadline. We reserve the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees, any applicant who attempts to avoid submission fees by sending in a replacement cut of their film after their selected deadline has passed. WE WILL ONLY VIEW THE FIRST CUT OF YOUR FILM THAT WE RECEIVE.
No, we require a final cut version of your film.
From a legal standpoint, you must clear all copyrighted material included in your film before you can publicly screen it. However, BISFF does not check to ensure that you have obtained clearance for these materials at any point during the application process, nor will we be held responsible for any inclusion of uncleared materials in your film. It is the sole responsibility of the entity submitting the project to secure permission from the copyright holder of the material in question, whether it is music, stock footage, or any other elements that could violate an existing copyright. Films that are accepted into the Festival must sign a waiver stating that materials used in the film do not violate any existing copyright. Quite often, rights holders offer reduced rates for festival films, so you should contact them directly to avoid any possible rights infringements.
You can mail us to keep us updated. We will use the public contact information from your application to contact you regarding problems with your submission and to notify you of your acceptance status, so please ensure this information is always up-to-date.
All the films are watched by the festival jury. We depend on new talent and new filmmakers to uphold our mission as a Festival of discovery. If we didn’t watch the films submitted to us, we would miss out on so many new works of independent film. If your film is received on time, your account is paid in full, and there are no playability issues with your online link, your film will be treated like all other films submitted to us for consideration.
Unfortunately, No. With numerous films to go through, we don’t have enough time to speak or correspond with you individually about your film. We apologise.
Refund requests for submissions are not appreciated. All payments are non-refundable for any reason.
We do not offer submission fee waivers since that would be unfair to independent filmmakers who pay to submit their work for consideration.