Kautik International Student Film Festival

Kautik International Student Film Festival is a 10-day competitive international student film festival,[1][2][3][4] organised by CEFM-the Hermitage, Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, in association with the Himalayan Society for Art, Culture, Education, Environment and Film Development (HIMACEEF) promoted by filmmakers/academicians Rajesh Shah (the Festival Director; FTII—Cinematography batch of 1992) and National Award winning documentary filmmaker Shalini Shah.

The festival is attended by students, theatre artistes, cinematographers, filmmakers and ministers.

At the second edition, in April 2018, FTII conducted an intense 5-day film appreciation camp that was attended by 91 participants—ranging in age from 15-year-old school students to a 72-year-old retired professor—hailing from 10 states, namely, Uttarakhand (Nainital, Dehradun, Haldwani, Khatima, Almora, Kathgodam, Ramnagar and Rudrapur), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Bareilly, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bijnore, Mathura and Bahedi), Rajasthan (Jaipur, Alwar and Bhilwara), Punjab (Hoshiarpur), Kerala (Kannur), West Bengal (Kolkata), Gujarat (Ahmedabad), Maharashtra (Nagpur), Delhi, and Haryana (Faridabad).

The Finance Minister—Govt of Uttarakhand, Shri Prakash Pant, presided over the Valedictory function.

Also present were Prof. Sandeep Shahare, National Coordinator, SKIFT (Skilling India in Film and Television) FTII; Course Directors Subhamoy Sengupta and Bela Negi; and FTII director Bhupendra Kaintola, who officially announced that the Institute plans to commence short-term film courses at Kumaun University.