Digital
The One Club opens global call for entries for ONE Screen 2023 Short Film Festival
Mumbai: The One Club for Creativity opened the call for entries for the 2023 edition of ONE Screen, the original short film festival for the global creative community that unites and celebrates filmmakers from both commercial advertising and film industries.
The fast-growing festival recognizes numerous forms and aspects of short films, including narrative fiction, comedy, passion projects, commercials, branded content, music videos, spec work, animation, sound design, movie poster design, title sequences, and more.
The mission of the program — which typically receives entries from upwards of 45 countries — is to celebrate filmmakers working in both the film and ad industries, with no limitation and total artistic freedom, all on one screen.
The global ONE Screen 2023 call for entries is now open for work released online or offline between 1 January 2022 and 17 July 2023. A tiered pricing structure based on entry deadlines makes the competition affordable even for freelancers and small independents: $60 for entries received by the 14 August 14 2023 early deadline, $75 by the 18 September 2023 regular deadline, and $90 by the extended deadline of 16 October 2023.
Entries are judged by a jury of leading film directors, producers, ad agency creatives, and heads of production companies, to be announced shortly. Winners will be unveiled at the ONE Screen Short Film Festival ceremony and screening later this year.
ONE Screen is part of The One Club for Creativity, the foremost global non-profit organization celebrating creative excellence in advertising and design, and has its pedigree in The One Show, the club’s leading global awards program for advertising and design.
The One Show was the first ad industry awards competition to recognize original branded content, creating the separate new category of Branded Entertainment in 2003 to accommodate the first work from BMW Films. The ONE Screen Short Film Festival was launched in 2011 to further honor creative excellence in film.
Past One Screen winners also include Oscar-winning director Laurent Witz, as well as Martín Rosete, director of award-winning feature film ‘Money’, whose producer first connected with him at the ONE Screen awards ceremony in 2014.
“ONE Screen has grown in stature to the point of attracting Oscar winners from around the world as both entrants and judges,” said The One Club CEO Kevin Swanepoel. “At the same time, we are dedicated to recognizing great work from all sorts of entrants, be they large or small ad agencies and production companies, independent directors, sound designers, movie poster graphic designers and others involved in film. ONE Screen is a home for the projects of accomplished filmmakers, as well as a proving ground for promising young talent.”
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.
