Sardar Udham, Barah By Barah and Nayattu win top awards at Diorama Film Festival

The Diorama Film Festival, which was held physically on 18 and 19 December in New Delhi and online from 18 to 24 December, saw over 130 films being screened this time.

Among the winners of the festival's awards, the Hindi feature Barah By Barah (2021), directed by Gaurav Madan, won the Golden Sparrow for Best Indian Feature Film, while Shoojit Sircar won the Golden Sparrow for Best Direction for his period drama Sardar Udham (2021).

The Golden Sparrow for Best International Feature Film was awarded to A Woman At Night, directed by Rafael Kapelinski, while the Golden Sparrow for Best Documentary Film was presented to Night Nursery from Burkina Faso, directed by Moumouni Sanou.

In the International Short Film category, the Golden Sparrow was presented to the South Korean film Ambience, directed by Kang Shingyu. The festival’s Critics Choice award, decided by the Film Critics' Circle of India, was also presented to Barah By Barah.

The awards for acting went to Joju George, who won the Golden Sparrow for Best Actor for his performance in the Malayalam film Nayattu (2021), directed by Martin Prakkat, and Rima Kallingal, who won the Golden Sparrow for Best Actress for her performance in the single-take Malayalam feature Joyful Mystery (Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam), directed by Don Palathara. Nayattu also won the Silver Sparrow for second-best Indian feature film.

The jury for Indian feature films, headed by renowned director Girish Kasaravalli, presented the Special Jury award to Kishore Kadam for his performance in Gajendra Ahire's upcoming Marathi film Godakaath. The award for Best Screenplay was presented to Rajdeep Paul and Sarmishtha Maiti for their Bengali film Kalkokkho (2022).

Avik Mukhopadhyaya won the Golden Sparrow for Best Cinematography for Sardar Udham while the award for Best Editing went to Hira Das for Barah By Barah.

The festival also had workshops, coffee-table sessions, interviews and panel discussions with film personalities.