Rules & Guidelines
1. COMPETITOR PROFILE
The participant has to fulfill all of the following three criteria to participate in the Short Film Festival:
1. The participant's age should be between 12-25 years
2. The young person has to be a student.
3. The young person has to be a part of a Salesian institution (parish, youth group, formation house, school, college etc.)
2. COMPETITORS AGE LIMITS
The MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI is a youth short film festival. Therefore, competitors aged between 12years and 25years (on 1 January 2024) may submit their films.
3. LIMITS FOR THE PRODUCTION DATE OF THE FILM
Submitted films must never have been screened or shown online. Films made before July 1, 2024 will not be admitted to the festival.
4. THEME
All presentations must be based on the theme “Dreams: Making the impossible, possible".
5. GENRE
The festival accepts all kinds of films except those showing cruelty to humans and animals, nudity and gory content. Films with discriminatory content or references to political movements are not allowed.
6. LANGUAGE
The short films can be in any language, but all of them must be subtitled in English.
7. LENGTH AND CATEGORIES
Films must not exceed the indicated length, including credits. MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI DOBARA welcomes entries of live-action short films (lasting up to 5 minutes)
8. PRESENTATION OF SEVERAL FILMS
A competitor may present more than one film at the festival. Each work must be submitted individually and accompanied by its own completed registration form. Links to multiple films cannot be submitted in the completed online form and such films will be considered disqualified.
9. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION
The last date for registration and submission of the short film for MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI DOBARA is 10 December 2024.
10. ENTRY FEE
The registration for each short film entry will be ₹ 1000. This is non-refundable.
11. CONSENT DECLARATION
By submitting the film to the MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI, the entrant gives the Tej-Prasarini Don Bosco Communications permission to display excerpts of the film on one or more of the festival's websites, in promotional events, television and social media promotions, and in the theatres of the Salesian Works.
12. FILMS SENT 'RECEIVED' & 'ACCEPTED'
Once the film has been uploaded, the competitor receives notification that the film has been received and the submission is subject to quality control. If the film has passed the quality control, the result will be communicated to the competitor. This process is a guarantee for the competitor that the film has passed the first step.
13. NOTIFICATIONS
The MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI commits to notifying competitors as follows:
▪ After upload, the Received notification in the competitor's email indicates that the video has been successfully uploaded.
▪ Once Quality Control is completed the Accepted notification indicates that the video has been admitted to the festival.
▪ The Shortlisted notification after the evaluation by the Preliminary Jury ensures that the film has been passed to the next evaluation by the Grand Jury.
▪ The Rejected - First jury level notification after the Preliminary Jury indicates that the film has not been admitted.
▪ The Nominated notification confirms that the film has been officially selected for participation in the screening.
14. FESTIVAL DATE
The Shortlisted films of all genres will be released online by Don Bosco Communications on 5 January 2025. The screening will happen in the month of February. The date and location will be notified to the participants.
15. TECHNICAL FEATURES
Before proceeding with the entry, the competitor must ensure that he/she has complied with all the following technical features when making the film:
a. Film settings: Expected aspect ratio is 16:9, with Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel size, in mp4 format. The Video Codec should be H.262, and the maximum bitrate should be 8000 kbps, and the maximum size cannot be more than 4 GB.
b. Subtitles: ALL films must have English subtitles, including ones that are in English. Subtitles must be integrated into the video.
16. FILM POSTERS
The competitor must ensure that the film has all 3 main requirements below, otherwise its submission will not be considered valid:
a. Synopsis: a brief summary of the film in English (no more than 100 words) for the jury.
b. Film thumbnail: 1 JPEG image of less than 500 KB, size 1080px (width) x 1920px (height), optimised for the web.
c. Competitor's photo: to be used exclusively for the purposes of the Festival, each competitor may voluntarily provide 1 vertical JPEG image of no more than 100 KB, with a size of 900x1200 pixels, optimised for the web.
17. ORIGINALITY AND AUTHORISATION
Each film submitted must be the original work of the competitor; by competitor is meant the one who is and declares him or herself to be the owner of the copyright related to the authorship of the work as well as the one who has and declares they have all the rights and releases them to the Tej-Prasarini Don Bosco Communications for participation in the festival and the screening of the film, according to the terms and conditions provided for by these regulations. By registering, the competitor ensures that he/she has obtained all rights and licences and assumes full responsibility for the film submitted. The competitor is solely responsible for authorisations, rights and permissions for third party material included in their film, music, trademarks, copyrights, logos and other intellectual property rights included in the submitted project.
▪ The Tej-Prasarini Don Bosco Communications expressly disclaims any and all liability and will not be held responsible for the unauthorised inclusion of any copyrighted content or material within or in connection with the submitted project, including any content or material that is or may become the basis for any third party claim for copyright infringement. In such cases the film will be immediately disqualified.
▪ It is the sole responsibility of the competitor to ensure that the project is free from all legal claims and disputes, actual or potential, including, without limitation, claims based on allegations of libel, defamation, invasion of privacy, violation of publicity rights, theft of trade secrets, violation of the principle of good faith, violation of confidential information and violation of contracts and/or agreements reached in writing and/or verbally.
18. JURY
The MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI jury will be composed exclusively of volunteers who will not receive any remuneration, allowances and/or reimbursement of expenses and will carry out their activities in a purely honorary capacity. Its members are chosen and appointed by the social network of Salesian communication. The Tej-Prasarini Don Bosco Communications and Festival organisers are not obliged to disclose any information relating to the organisation of the event, in particular: evaluations, notes, feedback or information relating to the submitted project as well as details concerning the review of the submission or the selection process. The jury's decision is final and binding, and is not subject to complaints and/or appeals.
18 a. PRELIMINARY JURY
After the film has been admitted to the festival, the Quality Control Commission appointed by the festival director will evaluate the project in accordance with the ethics and rules of censorship and will approve it by sending a notification of Acceptance to the competitor confirming that the film has been accepted for the jury.
▪ After this phase, the Preliminary Jury (appointed by social communication delegates from the Salesian network) will examine the accepted works and evaluate the submitted films. Each short film will be seen and evaluated by three members of the jury. The Preliminary Jury is approved by the Jury Committee.
▪ After several rounds of control and selection by the Preliminary Jury, the final list of films to be screened for the festival will be decided. This concludes the first part of the admission process.
18b. GRAND JURY COMMITTEE
▪ The Grand Jury Committee is made up of experts.
▪This committee decides on works selected and immediately expresses its opinion. After the individual evaluation, the jurors will meet virtually for a joint evaluation moderated by the Grand Jury Committee.
▪ At that time each nominated work will be examined and discussed again. The jury will choose from the list of nominations, sign and officially seal it. The jury's decision is final and is not subject to complaints and/or appeals.
19. NOMINATED FILMS
Nominated works will be announced by 22 January 2025. Only nominated films will be projected at the festival. Prizes will be given to the winning films.
20. PRIZES
The prizes for the MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI are:
First Place: ₹ 20,000
Second Place: ₹ 12,000
Third Place: ₹ 8,000
Best Screenplay: ₹ 5,000
Best Direction: ₹ 5,000
Best Cinematography: ₹ 5,000
Best Editor: ₹ 5000
21. WINNERS
The winners of MumbaiSalesians Short Film Festival: KAHAANI will be announced in February 2025 at the screening and award ceremony. The decision of the GRAND JURY members is final and not subject to complaint and/or appeal.
22. SCREENING AND STREAMING
All selected films will be streamed online on 5 January 2025 by Don Bosco Communications (MumbaiSalesians).
Links and notifications will be made available on the festival website and official social media channels.
23. PRIVACY NOTIFICATION
The Tej-Prasarini Don Bosco Communications ensures that all data and contents submitted by the competitor will be kept absolutely confidential and will not be shared on other platforms or given to third parties, except for the exclusive purposes of the festival, mentioned above.
24. ENQUIRIES
All enquiries should be addressed directly to kahaani@sdbinb.in
Address : Tej Prasarini, Don Bosco Communications, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Mumbai 400019. INDIA