India bags Best Director, Feature Film at third SAARC Film Fest
View(s):India bagged three awards including the Best Feature Film, the Best Director and Special Jury Certificate of Recognition at the recently concluded SAARC Film Festival held in Colombo. The Indian film “Paan Singh Tomar” received the award for its fascinating plot and strong direction that imaginatively combines the sports and action genre within the background of post- colonial India. The film tells the story of two lives of Paan Singh Tomar, in the army as a celebrated sportsperson and as an outlaw on the run in the Chambal valley. The Director of “Paan Singh Tomar” Tigmanshu Dhulia was also awarded the Best Director. KaushalOza from India received a Special Jury Award for his documentary “Afterglow”.
A panel of International Jury Members namely Philip Cheah(Singapore), Alexander Volkov (Russia) and Abbas Rafei (Iran) adjudicated at this festival. In addition to the Trophy for the Best Feature Film, Silver and Bronze medalswere also awarded to the Feature Film category.
While the Silver Medal went for “Seedlings” the feature film directed by Mansoor Munjahid (Pakistan), the Bronze Medal was awarded to the “Mouse”, directed by Wasantha Moragoda (Sri Lanka).Thisal Moragoda (Sri Lanka) received the Best Actor award for his acting in the “Mouse” and Aamina Sheikh (Pakistan) received the Best Actress award for her role in “Seelings”. For capturing the human drama of a difficult subject with emotional impact Tshering Penjor from Bhutan was awarded for his “Cost of Climate Change” as the Best Documentary.
The third SAARC Film Festival was held at the NFC Cinema Colombo and films from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in both Feature and Documentary categories were screened.
The Film Festival, another SAARC Cultural Initiative, which aims to provide a platform for exchange of ideas and points of view from Film Directors of the Region focused on promoting some of the best films featured in 2010 – 2012 from all its member states. The SAARC Film Festival gave a call for 2 feature films and 2 short films from each SAARC member country and nominations were received from 7 countries.
As a collateral event to the Film Festival, a film workshop was also held with eminent speaker Dr D.B Nihalsinghe as keynote speaker.
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