Kolkata: A technical glitch has brought the online film submission process for the 32nd Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) 2026 to a complete halt. The timing of the disruption is particularly critical, as the deadline for submissions is Sept 20. The official KIFF website and online submission portal have remained inaccessible since Friday night due to a major server/technical disruption, effectively preventing filmmakers and producers from submitting their work through the prescribed online system.
Access to the viewing links and submission records of approximately 700 films submitted before the initial festival meeting is also reportedly unavailable at present. Director and producer Turban Kar emailed the KIFF authorities on July 1 to seek guidance on submitting his film, ‘Antaheen Karabas (An Eternal Cage)’. He wanted to submit the film to the Bengali Panorama section that has a proposed prize money of Rs 10 lakh from this year. However, when he attempted to upload his documents on Sept 14, he stumbled upon the 403 error message. But many among the 700 who have already submitted their links may not even bother to reach out to us since they know their KIFF submission process is over.
Because of which the website may currently not be accessible from some locations, “After emailing the festival authorities about the situation, I received an email stating: ‘The 403 forbidden error that you are experiencing is due to a technical issue with the state data centre,.
“In Aug, I received an e-mail from the festival coordinator informing me about the commencement of the online submission process through the official KIFF website from that night,” Kar said. Our technical team is working on the matter and we expect the website to be restored shortly’,” Kar said. A KIFF source said, “Technical faults can always happen.
The impact is not confined to new submissions alone. This has the potential to seriously disrupt the ongoing preview, evaluation and programming process. A Sri Lankan filmmaker has reached out to KIFF authorities after failing to submit his work even after trying for six days. A director from Los Angeles emailed the festival authorities seeking guidance for an alternative method of submission. Alongside this explanation, he was provided with an alternate email address to complete his submission. But the timing and the duration of addressing the failure has hit us hard. All those mailing us with concerns of not being able to submit are being asked to mail us their links. We are wondering how to address this situation. ”