IFFI 2016 ends with a star-studded closing ceremony

After nine days of cinema goodness, at the 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Panaji, Goa drew to a close. The grand closing ceremony was held at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium with Gaurav Kapoor and Shriya Saran emceeing the event.

National Award-winning filmmaker SS Rajamouli and the chief guest of the closing ceremony said, "I am sad that I could participate only on the last day." His blockbuster film Baahubali (2015) screened at the festival yesterday. 

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Filmmaker Subhash Ghai commented on the changing face of Indian cinema. "In the past, artists, directors were less... now, every job has been specialised. Hence, now films have expanded, there are more opportunities," said Ghai.

Music composers Sachin-Jigar entertained the crowd with songs in Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali and Punjabi. 

The international jury was made up of Ivan Passer, Nagesh Kukunoor, Lordan Zafranovic, Larry Smith and Leila Kilani.

Before the awards were announced, chairperson Passer said the jury saw 22 films and selected the awards unanimously.The Special Jury award went to South Korea's The Throne directed by Lee Joon-ik. AK Bir, Amay Abhayankar CEO Esg, and Larry Smith gave the award, a silver peacock and award prize of Rs15 lakh to the director.  

The award for the Best Actor (Female) was awarded to Elena Vaska for the Latvian film Mellow Mud (2016) directed by Renars Vimba. Besides the silver peacock trophy, Vaska also received award prize of Rs10 lakh.                    
                     
The award for the Best Actor (Male) was awarded to Farhad Aslani for the Iranian film Daughter (2016) directed by Reza Mirkarimi. Aslani also received aaward  prize of Rs10 lakh

The Best Director award went to co-directors Soner Caner and Baris Kaya for their Turkish film Rauf (2016). Laxmikant Parsekar, chief minister of Goa, and filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor presented them with their award.  

The International Council for Film, Television and Audio-visual Communication (ICFT) UNESCO Gandhi Award was given to filmmaker Mustafa Kara by Lola Poggi Gujon for his Turkish-Hungarian film, Cold of Kalandar (2015). Union minister of state for Information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore and SS Rajamouli gave out the awards for Cold of Kalandar.

The ICFT special invention award was given to Canadian filmmaker Tiffany Hsiung for the multi-lingual film Apology (2016). 

The Centenary award for Best Debut Film of a Director went to Argentinine director Pepa San Martin for his feature Rara. Seven films, including one Indian feature competed for this honour.

After winning the Best Actor (Male) award, Iranian film Daughter gets another honour as it is named Best Film. Director Mirkarimi won the golden peacock trophy and a prize amount of Rs40 lakh.

Union minister of state Rathore spoke about the need for digitisation at the ceremony. He said films come with a sense of responsibility. "A lot of trust reposed in filmmakers and artists because cinema is so powerful and brings about social change it can lead the country into change. The only form of art with a deep impact that it is regulated by an act of parliament. Anyone who wants to make a film in India can get every permission from the Film Federation of India. We have also included the most film friendly state in National Awards. The next state to win it could be Goa."

The ceremony ended with veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai felicitating all the award winners and performers on the grand stage.

Full IFFI 2016 coverage