PRCI supports Eastern Chemmeen International Short Film Awards 2016

KOCHI: The Eastern Chemmeen International Short Film Awards 2016 organised by the Global Initiative for Excellence (GIE), publishers of Global k Magazine, and supported by PRCI has invited entries from film makes.

Short films are the current rage among youth and senior age groups around the world. Besides appealing to these target groups, the Eastern Chemmeen International Film Awards will include a focus category that is attracting global attention, namely transgender issues.

“Presently, India has only a handful of short film festivals attracting national attendance. Our aim is to make Eastern Chemmeen International Short Film Awards 2016 a prominent name on the short film calendar in India and internationally, said Joe A Scaria, Executive Director, Global Initiative for Excellence addressing a press conference.

The Awards have been branded ‘Chemmeen’, which is one of the all-time classics among Indian movies, and particularly because the movie has recently celebrated its golden jubilee.

The jury will comprise of renowned names such as Dr. Biju, a multiple national award-winning director, Bollywood sync sound expert and sound designer Jayadevan Chakkadath, prominent Cinematographer M J Radhakrishnan who has won the Kerala State Film Award 6 times for Best Cinematography, well-known Editor Manoj who won the 2015 state award for Best Editor for the film ‘Ivide’, Dr.Meena T Pillai, writer and critic who heads the Centre for Cultural Studies of Kerala University, and Angel Glady an international theatre artist and transgender activist from Chennai.

Well known journalist, Siraj Shah is the artistic director.

The best film will be give a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.  The other awards are for best actor/actress, best director, best editor, best cinematography, best script and popular film. The popular award will be selected by the audience through social media.

An added incentive is that the winning director will get a chance to assist one of the jury members in his next movie.

The Focus Award will go to the best movie that deals with transgender issues. Gender awareness and sensitization, particularly regarding transgender issues are presently ruling media headlines across the world. The film that sheds light on transgender issues and focuses on their lives and issues will be conferred the Rituparno Ghosh award, named after the late young film maker who was candid about his own sexuality and sought to highlight sexuality-related thoughts through his works.

Contestants can make submissions only online. The entry form can be accessed on the website http://shorts.reelmonk.com/ The last date for submitting entries, with an entry fee of Rs 1,000 each, is May 9, 2016.

The awards are sponsored by Eastern Group and is supported by the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI), the leading PR & communication organisation pan-India with about 30 26, the Shenoy’s Group of Theaters, prominent theatre group in Kerala which is celebrating its Golden Jubilee, online movie platform Reel Monk, and Ergo Consulting, a leading event management company.

NavasMeeran, Chairman, Eastern Group, Vivek Paul, CEO & Co-Founder, Reelmonk, Mansoor Piman, Social Media Coordinator, also addressed the media.  

Focus on PR in instant media age

All eyes on  talk by veteran 

journalist Joe A Scaria

By Geetha Shankar

BENGALURU: Veteran journalist, author, speaker and trainer Joe A Scaria will address a PR and media professionals gathering here on Friday, March 04 on PR in the Age of Instant Media.

Hosted by PRCI and YCC and presented by the University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, the talk assumes significance in view the rapidly changing media scenario.

The event will be held at Senate Hall, Central College, Near K R Circle.

As Ajay Sharma, veteran PR professional wrote in the January special issue of CHANAKYA, for many generations, reading newspapers at 6.30 AM or a quick post-lunch glimpse at an afternoon tabloid or watching an evening TV news bulletin were part of our daily routine. For leisurely reading, there were general and business magazines.

The entry of  24-hour TV in 1999 changed the habit dramatically. Live TV broadcasts made it possible to view news anytime through the day. This was the first disruption for media and communication professionals, so to say, which brought in significant changes in its wake.

But TV news consumption, like print, was rooted to a fixed location. Though it offered 24X7 ‘delivery’ of news, it did not facilitate 24X7 ‘consumption’ of news. News consumption using the Internet on desktops suffered the same limitation.

Mobile phones presented an alternative. Unlike TV, print and desktops, consumers could use them to access the news on the go.

In June 2014, India had 914 million mobile subscribers of which 185 million accessed the Internet on their mobiles.

In this background, PRCI and the student community will view Joe’s talk with great interest

Joe spent the majority of his career as a journalist, working 28 years with leading Indian newspapers and publications. His last and longest stint was an 18-year association with the Economic Times, where he was Senior Assistant Editor.

Presently he heads the Kerala bureau of Dubai-based Gulf News, and is a faculty member at the Institute of Journalism, Trivandrum.

He has worked in Kochi, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai.

He graduated in Commerce from the Kerala University, and has an MBA with specialization in Marketing.

A unique feature of his career is he has published his resignation letter as a book, titled 'Fourth Estate to Rubber Estate', which was released by Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy.