The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) this year has a lot of pleasant surprises starting with Suriya Sivakumar winning the ‘Best Actor award’ for the film Soorarai Pottru, which also bagged the ‘Best Film Award’.
Noted Bollywood actor Vidya Balan who received the ‘Best Female Performance’ award for her film Sherni, tweeted she was “humbled, honoured and roaring” with this honour.
An elated Sivakumar while thanking IFFM for “making it very special”, also expressed his gratitude towards the film’s director Sudha Kongara and dedicated his win to the entire team of Soorarai Pottru. Incidentally, the film has already set a world record by becoming the third highest-rated movie on IMDb.
For two consecutive years, the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) has gone virtual like many other events worldwide. Still, it has not dampened spirits of movie lovers who have been tuning in to this much loved event of Melbourne.
The awards night, normally a grand event, was held online but with the same level of enthusiasm ad fanfare. The other awards are as follows:
- Best Director: Anurag Basu for Ludo
- Best Indie Film: Fire in the Mountains
- Best Performance (Male) Series: Manoj Bajpayee for The Family Man S2
- Best Performance (Female) Series: Samantha Akkineni for The Family Man S2
- Best Web Series: Mirzapur S2
- Diversity Award: Pankaj Tripathi
- Equality Cinema: God on the Balcony
- Winner, Equality of Cinema: Nimisha Sajayan for The Great Indian Kitchen
- Winner, The IFFM Disruptor Award: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
- Winner, IFFM Short Film Competition: Mixi
- Winner, IFFM Short Film Competition, Special Mention: Valley of Fireflies
- Australia Winner, IFFM Short Film Competition: Notun Surjo (The New Sun)
Bajpayee, who was presented the award by film director and producer Shoojit Sircar, said, “I am finding it embarrassing to take the award just for myself and not talk about each and everyone who is so instrumental in making that performance happen.” He also made a special mention of M. Sumanth Kumar Reddy and Sumit Arora, the writers of The Family Man, for giving him the space to explore the character. This is Manoj Bajpayee’s second award at the film festival. He has also won the Best Actor Award for Gali Guleiyan in 2018.
According to festival director Mitu Bhowmick Lange, “Nothing brings people and communities together more than the magic of cinema.” She hopes that “the rich and diverse films from Indian and the subcontinent will help bring us a little bit closer as we stay apart”.
The iconic Indian Film Festival of Melbourne which kickstarted on August 16 ends on August 30.
For more details log on to www.iffm.com.au
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The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (@IFFMelb) this year has a lot of pleasant surprises starting with Suriya Sivakumar winning the 'Best Actor award' for the film Soorarai Pottru, which also bagged the ‘Best Film Award’. 🎬 #TheIndianSun @mitublangehttps://t.co/zvBR4BA12p
— The Indian Sun (@The_Indian_Sun) August 24, 2021
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