The ViBGYOR Film Festival is organized by the ViBGYOR Film Collective, a registered charitable society. The Collective is a coalition of various film societies, film festivals, media organizations, and other networks and groups. The ViBGYOR Film Festival was founded in 2006 and has since become the largest alternative film festival in South Asia. It is supported by the Thrissur Municipal Coalition (the government of Thrissur).
As we’ve already mentioned above, the main venue of the festival is the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, an autonomous organization dedicated to fostering performing arts in Kerala. The ViBGYOR Film Festival encompasses various genres and formats, including documentaries, experimental films, animation, music videos, and shorts.
The festival program consists of two main sections: Focus of the Year and Spectrum. Focus of the Year includes films that reflect the theme of the year. Past focus themes have included Water, Earth, Energy, Food Sovereignty, State, Communal and Developmental Conflicts in South Asia, Political Filmmaking & Media Activism in South Asia, South Asia: Lives and Livelihood, Stolen Democracies, Gender Justice, Green Growth, Cultural Diversity, and Dissent.
The Spectrum section includes seven theme packages that explore the central theme of the festival. They are Identities, Gender & Sexuality, Rights, Developmentalism, Nation State, Fundamentalism vs Diversity, and Culture & Media.
The festival screens about 100 films from different countries every year. Alongside film screenings, its program includes other activities for cinema-goers and industry professionals, such as retrospectives, workshops, panels with film professionals, lectures, conferences, campaigns, media exhibitions, and more. The festival’s diverse audience consists of cinema-lovers, film students, industry professionals, and activists.
ViBGYOR pays special attention to taking films and filmmakers to places where people don’t have access to quality cinema. The Collective's outreach program includes a series of mini festivals held around the country in towns and villages that have no cinema.
Photo: vibgyorfilm.org
