41,000 schools to host the School Cinema festival in India from November 14

More than 100 specially curated films from 25 countries, including France, Spain, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, and the UAE, will light up classrooms across India in the eighth edition of the School Cinema International Film Festival.

It is scheduled from November 14 to 30 and would be screened in more than 40,000 government and 1,000 private schools across the country, marking one of the largest educational film outreach programs in the world.

"SCIFF was born of this simple yet profound belief that cinema should be within the reach of every child, not confined to exclusive festivals or privileged spaces," said Syed Sultan Ahmed, Festival Director at SCIFF, Founder & Chief Learner at LXL Ideas.

According to Ahmed, thanks to SCIFF, any school in India can now host its film festival, turning classrooms into windows to the world.

This is in tune with the National Education Policy 2020, which also advocates for integrating creative media into education, such as cinema, for learning to be truly holistic.

"Through SCIFF, we aspire to nurture young minds that watch with awareness, learn with curiosity, and express with empathy. Every frame becomes a classroom, and every story a life lesson," he said.

This edition has drawn international partnerships and recognition. Prestigious film festivals like Annecy International Animation Film Festival of France, AniMela Festival of India, Giffoni Film Festival of Italy, and ZERO PLUS International Film Festival of Russia will support SCIFF 2025 in this journey to carry diverse cinematic voices to Indian schools.

The country partners in this festival are France and Spain.

Opening on Children's Day, November 14, the 2025 edition will showcase over 103 curated films in more than 20 Indian and international languages.

Building on the engagement with 23,000 schools and over one lakh students last year, this time around, the festival hopes to reach a far larger number.

SCIFF follows a framework: "WATCH, LEARN, MAKE," which involves the students in all aspects of cinema.

WATCH Cinema transforms classrooms into mini theaters where movies are screened that require involvement and discussion.

The LEARN Cinema program takes students behind the camera through a range of in-person workshops and online masterclasses led by experts in scriptwriting, cinematography, sound, and editing. MAKE Cinema supports students in filmmaking and entering a competition; winners join the youth jury as members the following year. The SCIFF, earlier known as the IKFF, has grown since 2017 as a transformational educational initiative in which art, learning, and social awareness come together. Having engaged over 10 million students and 60,000 schools thus far, the festival has redefined how film can function as a pedagogical instrument in teaching empathy, creativity, critical thinking, and global awareness. By turning regular classrooms into cinematic sites of exploration, SCIFF continues to make storytelling one of education's most powerful tools, inspiring young viewers to learn, imagine, and create a better world.