Mumbai: Short filmmakers have expressed happiness over the initiative of the Short Film Center to showcase their films and to provide a platform for business.
 
"There were buyers and sellers and the brand IFFI-Goa made the difference," said one of the filmmakers.
 
"It felt great. We made friends and our films were received well," said Germany-based Iranian filmmaker Shahbaz Nashir. Geetha J. maker of Akam/Inside said that it was a platform for short filmmakers and it will help in creating the required awareness for such films in the country. Sten Rosendahl of Sweden was happy about the fact that here they could get instant feedback from the audience.
 
Gabrielle Brennen from France said that this exposure would help short filmmakers to participate in the other film festivals also. Filmmakers emphasized that people are not aware that short films can be fiction also. "People associate short films with documentary, while this is an effective way of story telling," said one filmmaker.
 
Filmmakers informed that more than 300 short films were present in the segment and quite a few films were bought. A buyer who was present during the press conference informed the audience that there is great excitement in the field about the quality of films that were there at the Short Film Center. "I think a little more publicity will help a great deal in focusing attention on the section’ said Geetika Narang another filmmaker who came with her film Goodnight."
 
"Short films have inspired many feature length movies. If we want to see good cinema we need to promote short films," said Karan Narvekar. He said that short films get step sisterly treatment in comparison to feature films, which is not a very satisfactory state of affair.
 
On the need to be more engaging, all filmmakers urged media persons to watch the movies in the segment to know for themselves of the quality of their movies. "Films are very interesting but they need to be seen to have any impact," said the filmmakers.
 
They also said that there is some recognition among the TV channels for documentaries but short films are yet to make an impact. Filmmakers acknowledged that short films are meant for more personalized viewing. It was pointed out that there is a need to explore the new emerging technologies and content must be created for hand-held devices.