28th KIFF: B'desh, Spain's movies receive 'Golden Royal Bengal Tiger'
Kolkata: Spanish film 'Upon Entry' and Bangladesh's 'Kura Pokkhir Shunye Ura' (The Golden Wings of Watercocks) have bagged the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for Best Films in the International competition on 'Innovation in Moving Images' at the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), which concluded on Thursday.
The 2022 Spanish film directed by Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastian Vasquez about immigration and Bangladeshi film made by Muhammad Quayum received a cash prize of Rs 51 lakh (the highest in any international film fest) along with the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Trophy from West Bengal minister Aroop Biswas and actress Rituparna Sengupta.
The closing ceremony of the 28th KIFF was held at Rabindra Sadan on Thursday, which was attended by the who's who of the Bengali film industry, including Paoli Dam, Sayantika Banerjee, Arindam Sil, Tnusree Chakraborty, June Maliah, Ishaa Saha, Aniruddha Roy Choudhury and of course, Raj Chakraborty, chairman of 28th KIFF. Minister Indranil Sen, Santanu Basu, director general of KIFF, and several eminent jury members of the film fest were also present.
Argentine film 'Hitler's Witch' about a family of Nazi fugitives directed by Ernesto Ardito and Virna Molina, bagged the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for Best Director in the International Competition. The directors received Rs 21 lakh as cash amount along with the coveted trophy on Thursday.
The Hiralal Sen Memorial Award for best film in the Indian Language category was given to the Telugu film 'Muthayya' directed by Bhaskhar Maurya. A comedy-drama about a 70-year-old man, Muthayya, who dreams of acting in movies before he dies, has won a cash prize of Rs 7 lakh. The best director award in this category went to Deepankar Prakash for his Rajasthani film 'Naanera', who went home with Rs 5 lakh apart from the crown.
Tajikistan film Dov (Fortune), which narrates the tale of two friends and their luck with lottery tickets, received the NETPAC Award for best film. Bengali film 'Chhaad' starring Paoli and Rahul Arunoday Banerjee and Assamese filmmaker Bobby Sarma Baruah's latest work 'Sikaisal' (If Only Trees Could Talk) got the Special Jury Award in the Indian Language category.
"The inaugural ceremony was a massive success. The 28th edition of KIFF was also arranged magnificently and I thank the audience for supporting the film fest wholeheartedly," said minister Biswas at the closing ceremony.
