The 10th edition of the School Cinema International Film Festival (SCIFF) will begin on November 14, coinciding with Children’s Day, with screenings scheduled across more than 25,000 government schools and 550 private schools in India.

Running until December 5, 2026, the festival is expected to reach 5–6 million children through 110 films from 31 countries in 32 languages. The selection includes fiction, documentaries, animation and experimental cinema, with films from countries including Germany, Australia, France, the Czech Republic and South Korea.

The films include entries associated with international festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Zlín Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival. The selection explores themes including empathy, identity, relationships, mental well-being and social responsibility.

A delegation of Russian filmmakers and representatives of the Russian Embassy in India will participate in this year’s festival. The delegation includes Nikolai Dann, founder of ZeroPlus International Film Festival; Aleksandr Shkolenko, creative producer at ZeroPlus International Film Festival and Zeroplus.tv; and Peter Anatolyevich Ageev, director of Film Pedagogy Development at Russia’s Institute for the Development of Film and Media.

The festival follows a three-part WATCH, LEARN and MAKE framework. WATCH involves classroom and auditorium screenings followed by discussions. LEARN offers 10 online masterclasses covering filmmaking disciplines, including storytelling, scriptwriting, cinematography, sound, editing and production. MAKE invites students aged 7–18 to produce short films and participate in an international filmmaking competition.

Submissions for MAKE Cinema will remain open until January 31, 2027. The festival will also present SCIFF Honours 2026 to recognise schools for their engagement with cinema, student participation, innovative festival activities and efforts to extend film education to underserved communities.

Speaking about the initiative, Syed Sultan Ahmed, festival director, SCIFF, and founder and chief learner of LXL Ideas, said the festival was established on the belief that cinema should be accessible to children in schools. He said its WATCH, LEARN and MAKE framework seeks to help students move from passive viewing to critical engagement and filmmaking.

Formerly known as the International Kids Film Festival (IKFF), SCIFF was launched in 2017 as an initiative to use cinema as a teaching tool. According to the organisers, the festival has reached more than 10 million students and engaged over 60,000 schools through school-based screenings.

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