Moti Bagh wins Best Film award in Indian Features section at All Living Things Environmental Film Festival

The second edition of the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF), which was held virtually, got underway on 9 October and will continue till 17 October. The festival organizers have already announced the winners.

Nirmal Chander’s Moti Bagh was deemed the best film in the Indian Features section. The film was also sent for the Oscars in 2019.

Sharing his reaction, Chander said in a statement, "In a world where there is no dearth of content anymore, it is sometimes difficult to get people to notice your work. The battle is all the more difficult if one is not catering to pop culture. Moti Bagh was not an easy process. It is an honest depiction of the plight of the villages in Uttarakhand. I am happy the jury at ALT EFF believed in my work and the world will now know about it because of the Oscar nomination. It just makes things a lot easier."

The award for Best International Short went to Ami Vitale for Shaba. The winners of the International Features section were Alexandre Berman and Olivier Pollet for Ophir and Christi Cooper for Youth v  Gov.

The director duo Dheeraj Aithal and Pradeep Hegde bagged the award for Best Indian Short for their movie The Last Hop(e) while Ellie Stones picked up the Best Student Film award for The Pangolin Man. 

Speaking about the festival, a note from the organizer said, “Kunal Khanna, the co-founder of the festival, described the ALT EFF as a platform that focuses on highlighting the issues of climate change and the environment. A social innovator himself, Kunal is of the opinion that we must challenge the issues that are eroding the environment, talk about them more often to draw awareness which will lead to participation. Cinema is the quickest way to draw eyeballs and kickstart a conversation. He hopes to make ALT EFF a defining platform for environmentalists and moviemakers, where each one can help the other bring forth ideas and see to their successive narration."

Alexandre Berman and Olivier Pollet, directors of Ophir, spoke about the festival in a joint statement that read, "Life is much more than cinematic pleasure alone. Yes, cinema is an entertaining activity one indulges in but it is also a medium to speak up about important issues, the ones which may otherwise be hidden in plain sight, and in fact affect all of us. We are excited to have this platform to share these stories."