Mayurakshi wins Best Feature Film at Singapore festival

Atanu Ghosh's Bengali movie Mayurakshi won the Best Feature Film award at the second edition of the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival (SgSAIFF), where Pakistani singer Atif Aslam's live performance left the crowd spellbound.

The Mayurakshi director said in a statement: "Rarely do you come across such eminent people comprising the jury board and I felt so honoured and humbled to receive the award. The ambience was electrifying and with such enthusiastic participation of filmmakers, I am sure this festival is fast shaping up as a very important platform for independent films from South Asia."

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The closing night of the gala, held here on Sunday, saw Aslam perform at Resorts World Sentosa.

Miransha Naik won the Best Director award for his debut feature in Konkani, Juze. Syed Zaigham Imam won the award for Emerging Filmmaker of the Year, and Mallika Subramanian's Binodini won the Best Short Film award.

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The Best Actor Female honour went to Srijana Subba for Dying Candle, the Best Actor Male award went to Chandra Kiran GK for Summer Of Miracles, the Best Cinematographer award was bestowed on Dipankar Sikder and Rabin Acharya for Dying Candle and Rakesh Rawatmau won the Best Editor for Midnight Delhi.

There was a diverse mix of feature films, short films and documentaries from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan.

The first edition of the South Asian Film Market (SAFM) was launched this year during the 10-day festival held from 4-14 October. Nandita Das's Manto was the opening film.

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Abhayanand Singh, chairperson of the SgSAIFF, said SAFM was a huge success with 11 filmmakers pitching to a jury panel.

"We are very sure that some of them will receive the financial support that they were seeking," Abhayanand Singh said.