The Wednesday Child bags best film award at KIFF finale

After the star-studded opening ceremony and week-long screenings of world cinema, City of Joy was witness to a gala closing ceremony of the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival.

Veteran actors Sharmila Tagore and Tabu graced the event, held at Nazrul Mancha at 5 pm, along with delegates from all over the world. Ministers Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas will be present on the occasion while Subrata Mukherjee will preside over the function.

As many as 149 films by 137 directors from 61 countries were screened across 12 venues in the week-long extravaganza. This year for the second time, the KIFF was a competitive event. The competition focussed on films helmed by women filmmakers.

Headed by Sharmila Tagore, the jury comprised of well-known Chinese-American actress Bai Ling, Polish director Filip Marczewski, Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz and Sri Lankan actress Swarna Mallawarachchi, selected the Best Film and Best Director from 14 short-listed movies. Three films were screened in the Bengali Panorama section of the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival, which concluded on Saturday.

Asked about the small number, KIFF Short and Documentary Screening Committee Chairman Arindam Sil said, “I am sure more films will make it to the section next year.” 

Since there is a mandate that films screened in one festival cannot be premiered elsewhere beforehand, Bengali film directors who got the cut in IFFI Indian Panorama could not send their entries to KIFF, Sil, a actor-executive producer-director said. Nandita Roy and Shibo Prasad Mukhopadhyay, considered the most successful duo of directors in Bengali cinema in present times, sent their short film ‘Joyee’ to Bengali Panorama which was screened on the concluding day.

Hungarian director Lili Horvath’s socio-realist drama “The Wednesday Child” won the best film award at the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival, which concluded on Saturday. “The Wednesday Child” is a tale of a rebellious teen mother determined to regain custody of her young son. Columbian director Libia Stella Gomez won the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for best woman director for her film “Ella”, which tells a heartwarming story of an old man who struggles to gather money for the funeral of his wife.Gomez was awarded by the jury, headed by veteran actress Sharmila Tagore.