The School Cinema International Film Festival (SCIFF)-2025 commenced at Delhi Public School, Bengaluru South, on Thursday, inaugurating the eighth chapter of India’s premier children’s film festival.

Spanning November 14 to 30, the festival will showcase over 100 films in more than 20 Indian and international languages, extending to 40,000 government schools and over 1,000 private institutions across the country.

The Bengaluru curtain-raiser attracted over 350 students for film screenings, director interactions, and virtual filmmaking workshops rolled out across participating schools.

Attendees at the launch lauded the festival’s approach to education through storytelling. “The short films we watched today showed how a story can educate and entertain at the same time,” said Class 10 student Anindita Shreyas. “In just a few minutes, they made big ideas easy to understand, which is why learning through cinema feels so powerful.”

Taking world-class cinema directly to classrooms

“Children rarely get to watch the best films because they are only screened at festivals. So we decided to take the festival to them, bringing films directly into schools. That way, every child gets access to high-quality cinema,” said Syed Sultan Ahmed, festival director.

The inauguration also spotlighted persistent hurdles in Indian children’s animation. Filmmakers noted that despite rising demand, the genre remains marginalised with scant financial or institutional support.

“Animation here is still not taken seriously. People think it’s just cartoons and not cinema,” said Ketan Pal, a participating director. “Most of us work with extremely limited budgets. Funding is the biggest hurdle, producers don’t want to risk investing in children’s animation.”

Another director, Medha Kulkarni, added that inadequate backing compromises both quality and output. “Animation is expensive, slow, and labour-intensive, but it’s also one of the most powerful storytelling mediums for children. Without proper funding, creators are forced to cut corners or abandon projects altogether,” she said.

Over 1,000 students, teachers, and guests attended, including Nikolai Dann and Alexander Shkolenko, founder and creative producer, respectively, of Russia’s Zero Plus International Film Festival.