Press Release:Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

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‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’ to compete in the ‘53-Hour Challenge’ starting tomorrow

Union I & B Minister Anurag Thakur urges the 75 young talents to ‘explore, experience and engage with the brightest minds in the industry’ in IFFI-53

Anurag Thakur to attend opening ceremony of ‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’ segment of IFFI 53 tomorrow

#IFFIWood, 20 November 2022

It is time for the 75 youngsters having a penchant for film-making to prove their mettle! The 75 youngsters, all in the age group 18 – 35, who have made it to the list of '75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow' contest, will be divided into groups of 15 to compete in a “53-Hour Challenge”, starting tomorrow. Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Youth Affairs & Sports Anurag Singh Thakur will launch the challenge in Goa tomorrow (Nov 21, 2022). This is being organized on the side-lines of the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The competition will challenge them to produce a short film on their idea of India@100, all in 53 hours. This segment of IFFI 53 is powered by National Film Development Corporation in collaboration with Shorts TV.

The young talents were present in the Opening Ceremony of the 53rd edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) today. Minister Anurag Singh Thakur welcomed them to Asia's oldest film festival and urged them to ‘explore, experience and engage with the brightest minds in the industry’ in this cine-fiesta.

Speaking about this contest in the Opening Ceremony of IFFI 53 today, Minister said ‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’ contest was born last year from the PM's vision to give the youth a platform to showcase their talent. He informed, nearly 1000 entries in 10 categories were received. The 75 youngsters have been chosen based on their excellence in different areas of filmmaking, namely direction, acting, cinematography, editing, scriptwriting, playback singing, music composition, costume-and-makeup, art design and animation, visual effects (VFX), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). There are 15 artists from the Direction category, 13 budding actors and 11 from the field of Editing.

The '75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow' have been selected after a rigorous process by an eminent jury comprising of Lifetime Awardees and winners of National Film Awards, Grammy and Oscars. These young future film professionals have come up from 19 states - from places like Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya), Lakhimpur (Assam), Khorda (Odisha) and so on, the Minister noted. He further informed that the youngest among them is just 18 years old!

Among these various fields, four areas of expertise have been identified and added to this edition of the ‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’ initiative; these four new categories are i) Music composition, ii) Costume-and-makeup, iii) Art design and iv) Animation / VFX / AR / VR. These areas have been introduced to promote non-conventional skills and expertise and to encourage more people to explore career opportunities in these areas.

The youngsters will also have a chance to witness the business of cinema, at the Film Bazaar - a platform meant to encourage collaboration between South Asian and international film communities. The young artists are being provided free to-and-fro travel, accommodation, local transportation and access to the 53rd IFFI in all its glory.

The much-awaited list of handpicked ‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’, selected by a Screening / Selection Jury and then the Grand Jury was released a few days back.

The youngest winners are 18-year-old Nitish Verma from Haryana and 18-year-old Toufique Mandal from Maharashtra, both of whom have been selected for their talent in Music Composition. Maximum number of winners are from Maharashtra (23 artists), followed by Tamil Nadu (9 winners) and Delhi (6 creative minds).

These promising cinematic talents of tomorrow hail from as many as 19 different states of India, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The highest number of the selected winners are from Maharashtra, followed by Tamil Nadu and Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The Grand Jury comprised of: