Amjad Abu Alala's You Will Die at 20, Saurav Rai's Nimtoh, Saim Sadiq’s Darling picked up the top honours at the recently concluded 4th Arthouse Asia Film Festival. The winners of the competition sections were announced on the closing day, 11 January, by jury members Jerome Baron, Rokeya Prachy and Rajeev Masand at Basusree Cinema Hall in Kolkata.
You Will Die at 20, directed by Amjad Abu Alala, won the Golden Wood prize for the Best International Fiction Feature Film. The film is the outcome of the Produire Au Sud workshop held in France, 2015 and also won the award for the Best Debut film at the Venice International Film Festival last year.
The Silver Wood award for the Second Best International Fiction Feature Film was given to Liang Huan’s Weihai (2018), which also received awards at the Sao Paulo International Film Festival. Saurav Rai’s Nimtoh, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, International Film Festival of Rotterdam, Mumbai Film Festival, NFDC Film Bazaar and Busan International Film Festival, was awarded the Special Jury award.
The award for the Best International Short Film went to Saim Sadiq’s Darling, which was premiered at the Venice International Film Festival laster. The Special Jury award in this section went to Vincent Amand Midi by Guillaume Mainguet.
The award-winning films were again screened at the end of the film festival, which also hosted masterclasses by noted directors, organised important panel discussions on independent filmmaking and for the first time, hosted the Produire Au Sud workshop for the entire South Asia region.