The Asia’s first Smartphone Film Festival, organised by the iSmart Films, is set to begin on December 19. Being held in Karachi from 19th to 20th next month, it will also be the world’s 9th pocket cinema film festival of its kind featuring such films, movies and documentaries that are produced by using a pocket-sized mobile phone in place of conventional movie cameras and other filmmaking equipment.
The Smartphone Film Festival is being hosted in Pakistan in collaboration with seven international festivals from the United States, Spain, New Zealand, France, and Macedonia. In the festival, the ‘School of Smartphone Film Production’ will be also inaugurated followed by the launching of a ‘Web TV.’ The selected films and movies from all over the world will be shown in a 2-day film carnival, which will help Pakistan enter the international filmmaking arena.
Commenced on June 14, 2015, a total of 1,017 films from more than 110 countries, including Pakistan, have been submitted by young filmmakers for the festival, while the last date of submission is December 5, 2015. The jury consists of such leading filming experts as Shahzad Nawaz, Jami Mehmood, Furqan T Siddiqui, Adil Murad, Yousuf Bashir Qureshi, and others.
Having signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Brandlogics to run its activation campaigns, the iSmart Films has recently inked another MOU with the Visionary Foundation Pakistan to introduce ‘Mobile Journalism’; an emerging form of filmmaking and new media storytelling where pocket-sized communication devices with network connectivity capture, gather, edit and distribute shots and visuals.
The iSmart Films has been already conducting free workshops and training programmes in different colleges and universities to teach modern filmmaking and reporting techniques via smartphones. A curriculum is also being designed by international experts to teach mobile journalism in Pakistan to contribute to a nation’s social development. “A new industry is emerging in Pakistan which will creates thousands of employment opportunities for the local youth, who can now prove their mettle internationally simply by using their mobile phones,” Abid Beli, Founder iSmart Films, said.
The iSmart Films will also unveil its ‘News Portal, including a range of web portals for videos, video resumes, and online shopping. Based in Karachi, the iSmart Films has also acquired the distribution rights of five smartphone filming tools for the Asian region.
