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More than 50 filmmakers whose works were selected for the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) have signed a statement urging the Kerala Chalachitra Academy to screen all the films in competition for the jury, or else cancel the competition and award no one. The statement comes after repeated requests to the Academy to screen all the films selected for the festival failed, following the Union government’s objection to some of them without giving any reason. Filmmakers whose works have been allowed to screen at the festival have also joined the cause, along with hundreds of delegates.
The sentiment of the filmmakers is echoed in a letter that jury members from the last two years of the festival have written to the chairperson of the Academy, Ravindran.
“We are deeply disturbed to learn that 7 films were removed from the festival programming line-up because the Ministry of I&B arbitrarily withheld permission for their public screenings, without giving any specific reasons whatsoever. We are particularly dismayed to learn that IDSFFK administration has decided not to let the Jury see the following 5 of these films selected for Competition,” began the letter, written by former jury members including Rakesh Sharma, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award for his documentaries at the IDSFFK in 2025.
Initially, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had denied permission for 31 films. However, after the Kerala government’s intervention, permission was granted to 24 of these, including one on the waiting list. Of the seven films excluded from the list, five are in competition.
The makers of these films have since been urging the Academy to at least allow a screening for the jury so the competition can be conducted fairly. However, even after the jury agreed to watch the films, the Academy has not allowed it.
The Academy had taken the matter to court, with a plea to allow the screening. However, the court adjourned the hearing to November 13. The festival, being held from September 25 to 30, has therefore proceeded without the five films being screened for the jury. Following this, the filmmakers staged a protest outside the Kairali Theatre complex on the evening of September 28.
The jury members of previous years, including Rakesh Sharma, Pankaj Rishikumar, Jabeen Merchant, Ranajit Ray, Rintu Thomas, and Faiza Khan, urged the Academy “to immediately send these [competition] films to the 2026 Jury for previews and consideration for the awards. Not doing so would be tantamount to endorsing and legitimizing arbitrary censorship at IDSFFK.”
They further pointed out that the Union Ministry had only withheld permission for public screenings, and that this should not extend to closed-door private screenings. “There is no legal bar nor a Ministry ban or advisory to prevent a non-public screening for the Jury.”
The Academy's 'apprehension' that one of the withheld films may win an award and create an awkward situation is also brushed away in the letter. “The obvious question then would be – if a film is excellent enough to first be selected from among 100s of entries by the Festival Selection Committee and then chosen for an award by a Jury comprising eminent filmmakers and experienced professionals, then how and why did the Centre ‘censor’ it?”
Premendra Mazumder, a film critic and curator, stated that there appears to be no legal or ethical basis for preventing Jury members from watching the films. "The CC (Censorship Certificate) issued by the CBFC or the CE (Censorship Exemption Order) issued by the I&B Ministry is applicable to public screenings, particularly theatrical or public exhibition of films. A Jury screening, however, is not a public screening; Jury members can view the films privately for the purpose of evaluation without the film being exhibited to a public audience in a theatre," he stated.
