International Sports Film Festival (ISSF) in its third edition is set to take off across the country from this year. Social Sports Foundation, the organizer of the International Sports Film Festival (ISFF) after a tie-up with an event management company Straight Drive, will be organizing ISFF in Siliguri in the coming March. Then the ISFF will be staged in Lucknow in June then in New Delhi in August and finally at Port Blair in October. 

The third edition of ISFF, being organized by Social Sports Foundation and Federation of Film Societies of India jointly kicked off on 11th February on Tuesday at Nandan-III, Kolkata after former India international footballer Dipendu Biswas inaugurated the festival, ringing the bell at Rotary Sadan.

Among the 24 films from 13 countries, 18 films will vie for the championship in three different categories, Fiction, Non-Fiction, and LGBTQ. The winning films in each category will be given a Rs 10,000 cash award. 

Significantly, this is the first time, three films in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) category will be shown on 14th February. Secretary of the organization, Rangan Majumder revealed, “I have heard about the Film festivals on LGBTQ around the world. But I have never heard about a sports film on LGBTQ being shown in a festival.”

The three films in the LGBTQ category that will be shown on 14th February are Battle of Sexes from the USA, Forward Drive from Sri Lanka and I am Bonnie from India, directed by Sourabh Kanti Dutta. 

Majumder added, "Before the movies, a talk show will take place where former India international athlete Pinki Pramanik will participate.”

The idea behind starting ISSF was to draw people's attention through films based on sports. Secretary explained, "Dhonni Meye was one of the most popular Bengali films based on football although we found out later that the director wanted to make a simple comedy movie. But when Bengal witnessed the first sports-related movie then why not a sports film festival start from Bengal?"

Majumder mentioned another key reason stating, “The people who love sports by watching either live at grounds or by seeing movies, are unaware of the legendary sports persons of yester years."

"So if we can show them those films which have been made on legendary sports persons that will create the buzz.”

However, the organizers have not been able to show commercial films in the ongoing ISSF this time except Golondaj. But many commercial films based on legendary sports personalities were shown in the previous two editions of ISSF.