Woodpecker International Film Festival

Woodpecker International Film Festival (WIFF) is India’s one of the most respected film festivals focusing on documentaries and short films. The festival has also been globally acclaimed for its focus on promoting issue-based cinema. Launched in 2013, in the backdrop of completion of 100-years of Indian cinema, the festival has organised five international editions till now. 

 

Today, Cinema is at an important crossroad. While the distinction between mainstream and parallel cinema is almost getting blurred, a new breed of alternative filmmakers, successfully blending entertainment and meaningful cinema, is taking ground. Woodpecker International Film Festival (WIFF) aims to showcase this rich mélange of visual creativity to promote films and filmmakers focusing on socially pertinent themes. WIFF aims to showcase the rich mélange of visual creativity and cinematic diversity across the globe, as well as to promote films, documentaries and advertisements focusing on socially pertinent themes like environment & wildlife, livelihoods, health, gender, children, art & culture, etc.

WIFF demonstrates the power of issue-based cinema to create change and influence public opinion. With easy accessibility to technology and availability of new communication channels, reach and impact of visual messages has grown significantly, both in rural and urban areas. Be it short films, documentaries or social advertisements, they have now become an immensely powerful tool of communications aimed towards bringing desired social change. WIFF thus would like to comprehensively cover the wide spectrum of issues that have caught the attention of new breed of filmmakers in the recent past, be it gender, public health or environment.

 

A major attraction of the film festival would be forum activities. Seminars, conferences, workshops and master classes to help filmmakers and film enthusiasts explore contemporary issues, network with professional associates, hone their filmmaking skills and share the power of storytelling through cinema.