Nine short films and documentaries made by the Instructional Media Centre (IMC) of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) have been selected for Cultural Cinema Fest 2021, supported by UNESCO, Delhi office.

The online festival scheduled to begin on July 17 and films from more than 100 countries are participating in the festival.

The selected films are - Aristotle, Stephen Hawkins, Dr C V Raman, Bharat Ratna Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Nawa-e-Sarosh Mirza Ghalib, Al Zahrawi, A Tribute to Prof Yashpal, Sir Isaac Newton and Prof U R Rao. They were selected from among 44 films under the category.

IMC director Rizwan Ahmad said it is a huge recognition of the films at global level.

"Our focus is to take the academic content of the centre at international level and the team has made exceptional efforts in supporting this endeavour. This is the fourth consecutive time when IMC productions have been recognized and selected at national film festivals," he added.

He congratulated the team members who directed, scripted and produced the films.

Prof. S.M. Rahmatullah, in-charge Vice-Chancellor congratulated Rizwan and his team for this achievement. He noted that IMC through its continuous efforts is playing an important role in showcasing the relevance of Urdu language in the contemporary era, time and again.

Meanwhile, subscription of MANUU's educational YouTube channel crossed 50,000. IMC has been continuously providing educational content in Urdu through its YouTube channel which is a unique initiative of providing material in Urdu.

While students are away from campuses due to Covid-19 pandemic, their educational needs continue to be met with alternative options such as online education, social media and technology based-education dissemination.

Rizwan Ahamd while thanking all the subscribers said the sustained efforts of the centre in educational domain are being recognised and students are using its online content, video lectures and e-content in large number. "But this is not our destination, we need to reach out to every student who needs content in Urdu. The channel is being watched all around the world," he added.