The First International Short Film Festival is going to be held in Hubli from July 18 to July 21 screening over 30 short films from eight countries.

V.V. Maheshwar Rao, Kannada film director and consultant for India Film Festivals; Aadatt Khan, head of AB Networks; and Bharatraj of Blue Pencil Media Productionsn gave details of the short film festival at a press conference.

Mr. Rao said short films from Iran, China, Poland, Korea and Egypt would be screened. The festival is going to be held at Kannada Bhavan in Hubli, Karnataka. The festival hopes to promote film as a medium of education, besides promoting tourism and Indian culture, he added.

Mr. Khan said that the film festival would be jointly conducted by AB Networks, Kallur Entertainment and Blue Pencil Media Productions and supported by the departments of Tourism and Kannada and Culture, Government of Karnataka, and the tourism departments of Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

Mr. Khan said the objective is to provide an opportunity to budding filmmakers to watch short films of international standards and also interact with the directors and technicians who worked on the films. He said three awards had been constituted: best film, best director and jury award, and they would be given away during the valedictory ceremony.

A five-member jury will comprise of film directors Geethapriya, Dorai Bhagavan, Tiptur Raghu and two international filmmakers or technicians.