Only 5 women make the grade at Kolkata film festival1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteOf the 127 films to be screened this year at the 16th Kolkata Film Festival (KFF) – the second oldest international film festival in India – only five are made by Indian women directors.
Urmi Chackraborty, Sheela Dutta, Sharmila Maity, Monalisa Dasgupta and Shangeeta Dutta are the minorities. The international names include Liv Ullman and Marta Metzaros.
“It feels bad to see only five films made by Indian women are being screened this year.” The screening of her film is still in doubt. Sheela Dutta, whose film Matangini Hazra is scheduled to be screened, said. “Although my film has been selected, the KFF authorities informed me at the eleventh hour that my film may not be screened this year.”
The KFF official, Niloy Ghosh, said: “This is just a coincidence. There was no deliberate attempt on our part to discard films made by women directors. Films screened at KFF are chosen on the basis of quality and not the gender of its maker.”
