Bring Your Own Film Festival

The Bring Your Own Film Festival (BYOFF) is a film festival that began in 2004 on the beaches of the temple town Puri, in the Indian state of Odisha.

Its uniqueness lies in the fact that there is no formal screening or qualifying process, but it is a forum for independent filmmakers. Anyone can walk-in, register, and exhibit his or her work. The festival has proven to be popular and has generated considerable interest in the Indian film-making community.[1] Here, any filmmaker can bring their works to the festival and screen it. Not only filmmakers, but also artists from other fields like music, theatre, painting, sculpture, dance, literature and photography are encouraged to participate and show their work.[2]

This film festival was founded by Susant Misra and his friends[3] from the Film and Television Institute (FTII) that include Gurpal Singh, late Swagat Sen and others. There is no hierarchy, no completion, no juries and no awards.[4]

The film entries have to pay a nominal registration fee that is ₹5,000 and a screening fee.

The film is held from February 21 to 25 every year.[5]  

  1. ^ Ramnarayan, Gowri (20 February 2004). "Puri's free-for-all film festival". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 April 2004. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  2. ^ "dearcinem". Archived from the original on 18 February 2010.
  3. ^ Joshi, Namrata (22 February 2018). "BYOFF reinvents itself at 15". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  4. ^ "15th Bring Your Own Film Festival begins in Odisha's Puri | Sambad English". 21 February 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  5. ^ "Into The Wild: Bring Your Own Film Festival". IndiEarth - Connecting Worldwide Media To India's Artists. 15 February 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2020.