‘The Third Wife’ gets best film award in international competition section of KIFF

‘The Third Wife’ by Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair got the ‘Best Film’ award in the International competition section of the 24^th Kolkata International Film Festival which ended on Saturday.

Mayfair and her compatriot producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc collected the ‘Royal Bengal Tiger’ trophy and Rs 51 lakh cheque, from Bollywood actress Tabu and director Shoojit Sircar at a glittering function here.

Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky got the ‘Best Director’ award in the same ‘International Competition on Innovation in Moving Images’ section for his film ‘Judgement Day’ (Yomeddine). He received a Rs 21 lakh cheque, as prize money.

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In the National Competition on Indian Language Films section, Praveen Morchhale’s ‘Widow of Silence’ walked away with the top honour the ‘Hiralal Sen Memorial Award’ while the maker of ‘Sun Goes Around the Earth’ (Surjo Prithibir Chardike Ghore) Arijit Biswas got the ‘Best Director’ honour.

Ace director-actor Kaushik Ganguly, who had turned up in Indraadip Dasgupta’s Kedara (The Songs of Silence) got the ‘Jury’s Special Mention for Actor’ of Hiralal Sen Memorial Award.

In International Competition on Innovation in Moving Images Churni Ganguly’s Tarikh (Timeline) got the jury special mention.

The NETPAC (Asian Select) award went to ‘The Sweet Requiem’ by Directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam.

The Best Short Film, 24^th KIFF, top honours were shared by Gadhul (Turbid) by Ganesh Shelar, Sambhavtaha (Probably) by Gaurav Madan and Look at the Sky by Ashok Veilou and produced by SRFTI.

The juries in International Competition, Indian Language’s Films Competition and NETPAC Award consisted of eminent internationally known film makers and critics.

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Tabu said “it is an honour to be present at the film festival. Mamata didi (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) is putting up such an excellent show and made us a part of it. It will be an honour to be present at the silver jubilee celebrations of KIFF in 2019, I hope I will be called,” she said.

Sircar said it was a huge amount of prize money in a film festival and he was looking forward to higher number of participation in next year’s KIFF.

Mahua Banerjee, CEO of state-run film complex Nandan, said KIFF was proud to be accredited by the global body of film festivals.

Principal Secretary, Information and Cultural Affairs department, Vivek Kumar said over 3 lakh people watched films from different countries in 16 theatres during the eight-day festival and of them 1.5 lakh frequented the theatres in Nandan complex, the main festival venue.

West Bengal Ministers Subrata Mukherjee, Aroop Biswas and Indranil Sen were present at the function and gave away some of the prizes.