Thirty-one films scheduled to be screened at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), which begins in Thiruvananthapuram on September 25, are yet to receive screening clearance from the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B), three days before the festival.
The festival’s Instagram account said the ministry had denied screening permission to the 31 films. However, I&B through their X account clarified that permission hasn’t been denied, but that they asked the organisers to provide more detailed information about six films and a few others have been sent to sectoral authorities for review.
“Permission has not been denied to any film for screening in the 18th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Keralam. Six films have been requested to provide more detailed synopsis. Depending on the subject of the films, some have been sent to various sectoral authorities for their review,” I&B wrote on X.
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Deep Dive
What films are awaiting clearance for screening at the IDSFFK?
Why is the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting reviewing the films scheduled for IDSFFK?
How does the exemption from certification work for films at the IDSFFK?
An I&B official told HT on Monday that the films had been referred to the ministries of home affairs, defence and external affairs for further verification because of the subject matters of a few films. The ministry had not received responses from the three ministries as of Monday morning, the official said.
{{/usCountry}}An I&B official told HT on Monday that the films had been referred to the ministries of home affairs, defence and external affairs for further verification because of the subject matters of a few films. The ministry had not received responses from the three ministries as of Monday morning, the official said.
{{/usCountry}}The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, which organises IDSFFK, had sought exemption from certification for 347 films, most of which have already received clearance. According to an official at the Academy, of the 31 documentaries 19 are from the international category comprising films from Libya, Spain, Iran, Canada, France, Australia, Argentina, Philippines, Romania, Czech Republic & Nepal. Remaining are 12 Indian films including one Malayalam film ‘Globe’.
The films awaiting clearance include Parliament Street, Sanitised Republic: Cast(e) and Contracts, Globe, Memories of a Window, Birds of War, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk and Our Land. The films cover subjects including politics, caste, labour, conflict and displacement.
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Sanitised Republic: Cast(e) and Contracts follows sanitation workers at Delhi hospitals who continued working during the Covid-19 pandemic before losing their jobs in 2022, examining contractual employment and the caste dimensions of sanitation work. Parliament Street explores memories associated with the prominent Delhi street which houses Jantar Mantar.
Memories of a Window deals with protests and their suppression in Iran, while Birds of War draws on personal archives belonging to a Lebanese journalist and a Syrian activist to examine revolution, war and exile. Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk is built around video conversations with Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona in Gaza, documenting her life and work amid the war. Our Land examines an Indigenous land dispute in Argentina and the killing of Indigenous leader Javier Chocobar.
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Other films include The Match, Cover Up, 58th, Shot Reverse Shot and One in a Million, according to the Academy official. 58th, directed by Filipino filmmaker Carl Joseph E. Papa, revisits the 2009 Maguindanao massacre through the story of the daughter of a photojournalist whose body was never recovered.
The Academy has written to I&B seeking reconsideration of the decision, the official said.
Under the Cinematograph Act, 1952, films generally require certification for public exhibition. Section 9 of the Act empowers the Centre to exempt films from certification, subject to conditions. I&B guidelines provide for such exemptions for films screened at non-commercial film festivals. Films that have a Central Board of Film Certification certificate do not require exemption from the ministry. The ministry’s guidelines say festival organisers should preferably submit applications a month in advance and at least 15 days before the event, with complete documentation.
The issue echoes a similar controversy at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in December 2025, when the Centre initially withheld exemptions for 19 films. The ministry later granted exemptions for the films in stages, while Kerala authorities had announced that screenings would proceed despite the pending clearances.
IDSFFK, organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, is scheduled to run from September 25 to 30.