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A SMILE FOUNDATION
INITIATIVE
We are honored to host the 11th edition of the annual SIFFCY Film Festival in partnership with the European Union (Delegation of the European Union in India) from 28 Jan to 03 Feb 2025. The festival will be organized in a hybrid format to accommodate both in-person and virtual audiences. Major events, including the opening and award ceremonies, will take place at the iconic Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi on January 28, 29, and 30, 2025.
In parallel, screenings and related activities will be held in various locations in collaboration with the local schools and communities partners across India. Additionally, a curated selection of the program will be streamed on the festival’s secure, geo-blocked virtual platform, reaching a broader audience throughout the week.
FOCUS ITALY:
With an objective to give tribute to extraordinary films from all times of a particular nation, SIFFCY hosts a special section focusing on a country every year. This year SIFFCY has been fortunate enough to curate the best of ITALIAN CINEMA in partnership with the Italian Cultural Center, New Delhi. We celebrate best of Italian cinema made for young audience. This is an honest effort to exchange our art, culture, tradition and values through cinema and strengthen the cultural relationship between our nations.
COUNTRY OF HONOUR: POLAND
This year we are proud to celebrate POLAND as the Country of Honor at SIFFCY 2025. We are happy to collaborate with the incredible Polish Institute, New Delhi to host Polish Day during the festival this year. There will be multiple Polish film screenings and various sessions in the program during the weeklong festival. This is an honest effort to exchange our art, tradition and values through cinema and strengthen the cultural relationship between our nations.
CELEBRATING GERMAN & FINNISH FILMS
We are proud to collaborate with our long-standing partner SCHLINGEL IFF, Germany again this year to bring handpicked German films for Indian audience. In addition, we have collaborated with The Embassy of Finland in India to curate films from Finland.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILED SCHEDULE
BACKGROUND:
SIFFCY is a flagship initiative of India’s leading charity Smile Foundation to engage, educate and empower young minds through the power of Good Cinema and related capacity building workshops, interactive panels, masterclasses and related activities. Each year, the annual film festival attracts thousands of filmmakers, industry professionals and Cinephile from around the globe, with over 50,000 young spectators attending the week-long events. This year, we aim to reach a larger audience, with expectations of over one million virtual participants.
(You may find more information on www.smilefoundationindia.org | www.siffcy.org)
National Award winning Author
Daughter of scriptwriter Nabendu Ghosh, Ratnottama Sengupta is the former arts editor of the Times of India. She’s also a film festival -curator/-panelist /-organiser; documentary filmmaker; and the author and editor of several books on cinema and film personalities. She has served on CBBF; the NFDC Script Committee; and the National Film Awards, IFFI, and various other notable international film juries. And is a recipient of the National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema.
National Award winning Author
Dr. Anjali Monteiro is a documentary filmmaker, media researcher and teacher. Jointly with Dr. K.P. Jayasankar, she has made over 40 documentary films, winning thirty-three national and international awards. She has co-authored the national award-winning book A Fly in the Curry: Independent Documentary Film in India (Sage, 2016). She retired as Professor and Dean from the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, She has been visiting faculty at media and design institutions and universities across the world and received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film Education, from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India. More about her work at http://www.monteiro-jayasankar.com/.
National Award winning Critic, Author, Filmmaker
Dr. Piyush Roy is an Indian National Film Award winning critic-columnist, and an international author, curator, filmmaker and professor in Film, Media and South Asian Studies. Presently, he is Dean, School of Film, Media and Creative Arts at RV University, Bengaluru and Founder-Curator, Teen Indie Film Awards, (one of India’s largest film festival platforms showcasing works of teenage filmmakers from across the globe).