In orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) downlink systems, user equipments over large delay spread channels reduce the cell spectral efficiency due to inter-symbol interference (ISI). Channel shortening is an attractive filtering technique to mitigate ISI over such large delay spread scenarios, but the filter should be designed carefully to prevent subsequent spectrum null phenomenon. In this paper, we propose subband interference suppression (SIS) in channel shortening for OFDMA downlink systems. In our framework, we first develop the minimum subband interference (MSI) filter which reduces the interference and noise enhancement within the subcarriers of interest. To reduce its complexity, we present the delay preselection method, which predetermines significant delay candidates on the basis of estimation results. Simulation results show that the proposed SIS framework is effective over cellular scenarios, where conventional schemes do not work properly.