Dhaka University's TSC gears up for the 17th IIUSFF closing ceremony

Films from across the world are playing on screens at TSC this week, as students, filmmakers and film enthusiasts gather at the University of Dhaka for the 17th International Inter-University Short Film Festival (IIUSFF).

From 21 to 23 September, 200 selected films are being screened at TSC, alongside discussions and other programmes. The festival, organised by the Dhaka University Film Society (DUFS), has received 1,269 submissions from 92 countries this year.

For a festival that began in 2007, the numbers tell part of the story. The rest lies in how dramatically the process of finding these films has changed.

In its early years, IIUSFF had to rely on embassies, cultural centres and personal networks to collect films. Submissions arrived through email, drive links or Google Drive. There was limited internet access, limited connectivity and, consequently, limited reach.

Photo: Courtesy.

Today, filmmakers submit through FilmFreeway, and the festival receives work from student filmmakers across the world. Bangladesh, Iran and India have recorded the highest number of submissions this year, according to Rifat Ara, assistant international affairs secretary of DUFS.

"To us film isn't just about entertainment or escape from the real world; rather it is a vital medium of defiance." - Sumantta Sarker, GS, DUFS

But IIUSFF has not simply grown in size. It has also expanded its idea of what a student film festival can hold.

This year, the festival has introduced 'Reels of Resistance', a category for films dealing with issues including inequality, oppression, discrimination, conflict, displacement and other forms of social and environmental injustice.

"To us film isn't just about entertainment or escape from the real world; rather it is a vital medium of defiance," said DUFS general secretary Sumantta Sarker. "Since injustices are unfolding around us and across the whole world, we initiated this category to confront those immediate realities."

It is a fitting addition to an edition whose cultural theme comes from one of our oldest traditions: Baul Gaan.

The festival has taken Baul Gaan as its native art theme, drawing on its ideas of pluralism, equality and the search for a deeper human connection. Those ideas have also shaped the festival's visual language, bringing an element of Bangladesh's folk heritage into an event where films arrive from dozens of countries.

The connection is not merely decorative. In a festival built around young people telling stories about the world they inhabit, Baul's long tradition of looking beyond social divisions provides an appropriate cultural frame.

The films themselves have travelled considerably farther than they once did. Since the 14th edition, DUFS has also taken selected films beyond the University of Dhaka, organising screening programmes at university campuses around the country. This year, screenings have already taken place at Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Gazipur Agricultural University and Jahangirnagar University, with three more campus screenings planned after the main festival.

At TSC, the festival brings that wider journey back to one place.

Its jury this year includes filmmaker, researcher, visual artist and academic Dr Imran Firdaus; filmmaker, screenwriter and television dramatist Nurul Alam Atique; filmmaker and screenwriter Rezwan Shahriar Sumit; cinematographer and director Arnab Laha; and documentary filmmaker, director, producer and cinematographer Elizabeth D'Costa.

For DUFS, the festival's original invitation remains unchanged: "Take Your Camera, Frame Your Dream."

What has changed is the distance that invitation now travels. A platform that once depended on films being sent through embassies and email has become a meeting point for young filmmakers from 92 countries — with their stories now playing on screens at TSC, in front of an audience that has come to watch.