The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India has decided to extend the last date of sending the entries for its 10^th Annual Human Rights Short Film Competition, 2024 by a month from 30^th August to 30^thSeptember, 2024 in view of several requests from various parts of the country in this regard.

The Short Film Awards scheme was instituted by the Commission in 2015. The scheme aims to encourage and acknowledge cinematic and creative efforts of Indian citizens, irrespective of their age, towards promoting and protecting human rights. In all previous competitions, the Commission received tremendous response from different parts of the country.

The short films may be in English or any Indian language with subtitles in English. The duration of the short film should be a minimum of 3 minutes and a maximum of 10 minutes. The short film could be a documentary, a dramatization of real stories, or a work of fiction. The film can be in any technical shooting and filmmaking format, including animation.

The themes of short films should be based on various socio-economic, cultural, and political rights. The film could be a documentary, dramatization of real stories, or a work of fiction, in any technical format, including animation, within the ambit of the following:

• Right to life, liberty, equality and dignity

• Covering issues specific to bonded and child labour, women & children’s rights,

• Rights in challenges of elderly persons

• Rights of persons with disability

• Manual scavenging, right to healthcare

• Issues of fundamental freedoms

• Human trafficking

• Domestic violence

• Human rights violation due to police atrocities

• Custodial violence and torture

• Socio-economic disparities

• Rights of Nomadic and Denotified Tribes

• Prison reforms

• Right to education

• Right to clean environment including environmental hazards impacting life on planet earth

• Right to work

• Right to equality before law

• Right to food and nutritional security

• Rights of LGBTQI+

• Human rights violation due to displacement on account of either man-made or natural calamity

• Celebrating human rights and values in Indian diversity

• Development initiatives improving life and living standards, etc.

There is no entry fee or bar on the number of entries an individual can send to participate in the contest. However, the participants must send each film separately with a duly filled-in entry form. The terms & conditions, along with the entry form, can be downloaded from the NHRC website: www.nhrc.nic.in or the link: Click here.

The film, a duly filed entry form, and other requisite documents may be sent using Google Drive at nhrcshortfilm[at]gmail[dot]com. Any queries may also be sent to this email address.

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NSK/VCK