Digital
Banana Balloon’s “Answer Me” wins best of show in ONE Screen Short Film Festival
Mumbai: “Answer Me”, created by Banana Balloon Shenzhen on behalf of Tencent Sustainable Social Value, is the top winner in the global ONE Screen 2023 Short Film Festival, the premiere short film festival produced by The One Club for Creativity celebrating global filmmakers from both commercial advertising and film industries.
“Answer Me”, which highlights Tencent SSV’s commitment to digital education and online teaching for rural areas of China, was named Best of Show, Best of Region-Asia Pacific, and awarded three craft awards: one each in screenplay, directing, and casting. In addition, Banana Balloon won a craft award in Cinematography for “The Third Ear”, also on behalf of Tencent SSV.
Other top winners include director Joaquin Salim, working with Capitolio Caracas, for “Aleros [Pompeii]” for the band La Vida Boheme. The music video won Best of Region-Latin America, and Craft awards in remote production and editing.
Best of Region-North America honors went to Havas New York for “You Don’t Know the Half of it” on behalf of The Harris Project. The work also won a Genre award in Drama. There was no Best of Region-Europe winner selected this year.
Other ONE Screen 2023 Genre winners are as follows.
. Branded Content Film: Grits Richmond “ A Father’s Affirmation ” for Reebok
. Branded Entertainment Film: Anonymous Content Culver City “ We Are Ayenda” for WhatsApp
. Comedy: Sea Wolf New York “ Coddle No More”
. Experimental Film: Stink Films London “ Inside the Blind Iris” for Sadler’s Wells
. Fiction: Emma Branderhorst Amsterdam with IJswater Films Amsterdam “ Spotless”
. Music Video: Stink Films Berlin “ MoMA PS3” for Nemorum
. Non-Fiction/Documentary: Todd Antony Photography London “ We Are Flying Stars”, self-promotion
. Student Film : Constanze Radak from University of Applied Sciences Salzburg “ Doubts” for Student Master project
Other ONE Screen 2023 Craft winners are as follows.
. Animation: Spoon Tokyo “ Scuffing Song” for Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Pocari Sweat Returnable Bottle Project
. Emerging Filmmaker: Theo James Krekis London “ Pram Snatcher” for BFI London
. Music Composition: OPPO Shenzhen “ See More in a Snap” for OPPO Find N2 Flip
. Sound Design: Bensimon Byrne/Narrative Toronto “ Others” for Casey House
. Type on Poster: Sunday Afternoon New York “ Human Response Exhibit”, self promotion
ONE Screen is a global festival focuses on all forms and aspects of short films — narrative fiction, comedy, commercials, branded content, music videos, spec work, passion projects, animation, sound, movie poster design, title sequences and more — and has a mission to celebrate and award filmmakers from around the world working in both the film and ad industries, with no limitation and total artistic freedom, all on one screen.
The esteemed 2023 jury included top creatives in the agency and production company worlds, including Cristo Fernández, who starred as Dani Rojas in the AppleTV+ hit series “Ted Lasso” and founded independent film production company Espectro MX Films.
The One Club for Creativity – home of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) awards, ONE Asia Awards, Type Directors Club and competition, TDC Ascenders, Young Guns, Young Ones Student Awards, Next Creative Leaders, ONE Screen Short Film Festival, and more – is the world’s foremost non-profit organization whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community. Revenue generated from entries to its global awards shows goes back into the industry to fund programming under the organization’s four pillars: education, inclusion & diversity, gender equality, and creative development.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
