Manikbabur Megh, Adieu Godard, Jhilli win at 27th Kolkata International Film Festival

The winners of the 27^th Kolkata International Film Festival were announced yesterday at the closing ceremony of the seven-day event which began on 25 April.

Dedicated to the centenary year of legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, the festival commenced with the screening of Aranyer Din Ratri (1970).

National award-winning director Amartya Bhattacharyya’s Adieu Godard won the Hiralal Sen Memorial award for Best Film in an Indian language. The film had its world premiere at the 43^rd Moscow International Film Festival last year. Adieu Godard also fetched for Bhattacharyya the Best Director and Best Screenplay awards at the Sipontum Arthouse International Film Festival (SAIFF) in Italy this year.

A take on the menace of casteism in rural India, Guthlee fetched Ishrat R Khan the Hiralal Sen Memorial award for Best Director in an Indian language.

Anuraag Pati won the Special Jury award in the same category for Prapti, based on Buddhadeb Guha’s story of the same title.

Abhinandan Banerjee’s Manikbabur Megh, starring Chandan Sen, Debesh Roy Chowdhury, Arun Guhathakurta and Nimai Ghosh, won the NETPAC (Asian Select) award for Best Film. Manikbabur Megh had its world premiere at the 25^th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia last year. The film was also screened at the 52^nd International Film Festival of India, Goa, last November in the feature category of the Indian Panorama section.

The Golden Royal Bengal Tiger for Best Indian Documentary Film went to Shuchi Prasad’s Nikke Manu Di Nikki Kataab (The Little Book Of The Little Man).

Shristipal Singh’s Geru Patra bagged the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger for Best Indian Short Film, while the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger for Best Film in International Competition on 'Innovation on Moving Images’ went to Ishaan Ghose’s Jhilli.

Mehdi Hmili’s Tunisian film Streams won the Special Jury award in International Competition on 'Innovation on Moving Images’. Polish director Ola Jankowska won the award for Best Director for his film Anatomia (Anatomy) in the same category.