Human Rights Commission invites applications for short film competition

Kullu, May 25: The National Human Rights Commission is organizing the “Short Film Competition 2026” to promote and protect human rights. The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2026.
Jaimini Kumar Srivastava, Deputy Director of the Commission, stated that any citizen of the country can participate in the competition without any application fee. A participant can also submit more than one film, although a separate application is required for each film.
He stated that the competition will award a first prize of two lakh rupees, a second prize of one and a half lakh rupees, and a third prize of one lakh rupees. Furthermore, upon the jury’s recommendation, up to four films may be awarded a cash prize of 50,000 rupees each along with a ‘Special Mention Certificate’.
Short films for the competition must address social, economic, cultural, and political issues related to human rights, such as child labor, women’s rights, health, education, and the environment. Films can be 3 to 10 minutes long and can be in fiction, documentary, or animation genres.
The film must be in English or any Indian language with English subtitles. The technical format is MP4 Full HD, and the film size should preferably not exceed 2 GB. The Commission has clarified that films submitted to the competition should not be available on any social media platform or have previously been submitted to any other Commission competition. Any film found to contain obscene content will be immediately rejected.
The application process is entirely online. Participants must create a folder titled “Short Film Award-2026, Name of Applicant/Production House” in their Google Drive. They must upload the application form, identification card, a brief synopsis, and the main short film. A link to the Google Drive folder must then be sent to the Commission’s official email address, nhrcshortfilm@gmail.com , along with the applicant’s full postal address and mobile number.
The results of the competition will be announced through nhrc.nic.in , press releases and X handle posts.