The 8th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) 2010 was held from January 7th - 14th, 2010 and displayed its cinematic universality, with the presence of film personalities, celebrities, the press, technical delegates and movie buffs from across the world.

In its 3rd year, the Whistling Woods International Student Film Competition at PIFF,  saw more than 300 short film submissions from over 55 film and animation institutes in over 20 countries across the world. The WWI Student Film Competition is part of the PIFF initiative to reach out to students from all over the world and offers budding filmmakers a platform to showcase their work, judged by an eminent international jury.

It was a great moment for the students of Whistling Woods International (WWI) as they won 3 awards at the International Student Short Film Competition. The students of WWI won the Best Screenplay Award (Live Action Film) and US$ 1000 and the ARRI Student Cinematography Award 2010 (Shubham  Kasera) for the film Mai and the Best Animated Film Award and  US$ 500 for the film  BeJinxed.

The International Best Live Action Film Award and US$ 2000 was won by The Watch Clinic (Ghadyalancha Dawakana) directed by Vikrant Pawar, a student of FTII, Pune.  Elisa Miller from Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica (CCC), Mexico won the International Best Director- Live Action Films Award  & US$ 1000 for her film Roma and the International Best Animated Film Award  & US$ 500 was won by Inka Bola from Gobelins L'Ecole de L'Image, Paris.

The Festival was inaugurated by screen legend Dev Anand.  Dr. Shriram Lagoo and Rajesh Khanna received Lifetime Achievement Awards.  The first S D Burman Award for Creative Music and Sound was conferred on music composer Pyarelal. Eminent film personalities like Konkona Sen, Rahul Bose and Jackie Shroff were present on the occasion. Guest of Honour, Subhash Ghai said "I am really pleased that the International Student Film Competition has now become an integral part of PIFF and WWI is taking a keen initiative to promote this section. Some of the student films that I saw were wonderful."

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Ashok Chavan gave away the awards to the winners at the Closing Ceremony on 14th of January 2010 and congratulated Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, Chairman - PIFF and Dr. Jabbar Patel, Director- PIFF for the splendid week-long film festival held in Pune. On this occasion, Mr. Chavan said, "Thanks to Subhashji and Whistling Woods International for recognising young talent from all over India and the world and promoting them, across all aspects of filmmaking. Maharashtra is proud to have WWIL in Mumbai to educate and promote young talent."

Expressing his gratitude, Mr. Kalmadi said, "We really thank Whistling Woods for being an integral part of PIFF by organising the Student Film Competition and also for providing the Student Film Awards. I give full support to WWI because they are doing a lot to spread the movement of filmmaking throughout the country."