The fifth year saw the introduction of short film and documentary section rightly named SEED.
Thy Daughter O' Mother Earth: A documentary on the life & work of the legendary dancer & cultural anthropologist Manjushree Chaki Sarkar was made by noted filmmaker Shekhar Das.
Meeting a Milestone (A documentary on India's Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan) made by another famous filmmaker Goutam Ghose was also premiered at the festival.
The competitive section huge response and entries came in various languages including Kurdish(Iraq) among other documentaries with varied subjects.
The inaugural movie was Iye(The Others) directed by noted theater personality and film maker Mr. Debesh Chattopadhyay, starring Debshankar Haldar, Arpita Ghosh and Nitya Ganguly among others.
The titles for this year being Cinemawala, Onyo Opala, Anubrata Bhalo Acho?, Natoker Moto, Asha Jaoar Majhe, and Babar Naam Gandhiji.
[25] Hyderabad Bengali Film Festival (HBFF) is introducing a Viewers’ Choice Award for the first time in 2016.
[29][30][31] The festival took place from 26 to 28 June 2015 and screened eight movies, viz., Kadambari, Bitnoon, Jogajog, Nirbaak, Nirbashito (which was India's official selection for Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Film[32]), Family Album,[33] Chotoder Chobi (National Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues) and Teenkahon.
[36] Over two and a half days, movies such as Apur Panchali, Jaatishwar, Nayan Chapar Dinratri, Take One, Phoring, Jodi Love Dile na Prane, Meghe Dhaka Tara & Rupkatha Noy were screened.
Shows ran to full houses, the film fraternity as well as aficionados of the twin cities were all praise for the great initiative.
[38][39] Bengalis in Hyderabad team has written, composed, sang and shot the theme song of the festival in-house, which was screened before every movie and was very well received by the audience.
The festival was curated by Ratnottama Sengupta, an eminent film critic and movie journalist.