Arijit Biswas, Praveen Morchhale win at the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival

The winners at the 24^th Kolkata International Film Festival were announced yesterday, the closing date of the festival.

The festival began on 10 November and various national and international artistes, including Simon Baker, Majid Majidi and Shoojit Sircar, participated.

In the National Competition in Indian Language Films, Arijit Biswas was chosen for the Hiralal Sen Memorial award for Best Director for his controversial film Surjo Prithibir Charidike Ghore.

Praveen Morchhale’s Widow Of Silence won the award for Best Film and Kaushik Ganguly bagged the Jury’s Special Mention for Best Actor for his outstanding performance in Indraadip Dasgupta’s debut film The Songs Of Silence.

Three awards were given away in the category of International Competition on Innovation in Moving Images. While Churni Ganguly and Hungarian director Arpad Bogdan jointly won the Jury’s Special Mention for their films Tarikh and Genezis, respectively, Abu Bakr Shawky from Egypt was honoured with the Best Director award for Yomeddine (Judgement Day).

However, the award for Best Film went to The Third Wife by Ash Mayfair from Vietnam.

Ishani Kanjilal Dutta won the Best Documentary award for Say Cheese. Ganesh Shelar’s Gadhul, Gaurav Madan’s Sambhavtaha and Ashok Veilou’s Look At The Sky won awards for Best Short Films.

Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam received the NETPAC (Asian Select) award for The Sweet Requiem.