Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne 2021 Nomination List Unveiled; Ludo, Sherni, Soorarai Pottru And God On The Balcony Bag Spots
The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2021 award ceremony will take place virtually on August 21.
The Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne, one of the biggest international Indian film festivals outside of the country, has announced its nomination for its annual awards ceremony. The festival, which is presented by the Victorian Government, is an annual festival that takes place in Melbourne, Australia, and showcases the best of Indian films and the subcontinent for that year. In its 12th edition to be held this month, the IFFM 2021 has gone virtual due to the global pandemic. With over 100 films whose screening will be held during the event, this will be a celebration of diversity and the best of Indian cinema in all its forms.
Apart from the screenings, the most anticipated ‘IFFM Awards Ceremony’ will also take place during the course of the festival. All set to happen on August 20, this year’s event will witness more names than ever who will join IFFM’s Roll of Honour, as they have broadened their horizons with new nomination titles to celebrate the Indian film industry holistically.
Adding to its recognition of talent from across so many sections of filmmaking, this year the festival is launching three categories under the belt of web shows. Keeping up with the growing trend of OTT shows dominating entertainment content consumption, the festival will recognise Best Series, Best Performance in a series each under the Actor and Actress category. The consideration of these shows are limited to only those platforms which are available to the Australian audiences. The nominations will see films and content which were released between August 2020 to July 2021.
This list of names includes extraordinary films of 2021 such as Ludo directed by Anurag Basu, the Vidya Balan starrer Sherni directed by Amit Masukar, Soorarai Pottru (Tamil) starred and produced by Suriya and directed by Sudha Kongara and God on the Balcony, an Assamese film, starring Harish Khanna and directed by Biswajeet Bora.
This year's Best Documentary feature some of the most compelling stories including Shut Up Sona, W.O.M.B, About Mumma amongst others. Winners of Best Film, Best Indie Film and Best Documentary each win state of the art cameras from Black Magic Design apart from the award. Another key highlight is that the Best Film winner automatically gets a nomination nod under the Best Asian Film category at the annual prestigious AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards).
Each year the festival celebrates this prestigious event in its physical form. However, in the wake of the current Australian border lockdown, the award ceremony will be hosted virtually. The IFFM has had the privilege of some of the biggest Australian film talents on the jury panel. This year’s festival jury boasts of jury members that will include names like global award-winning film editor Jill Bilcock, one of Australia’s renowned actors Vince Colosimo and multi award-winning director Geoffrey Wright
The nominations for 2021 are as listed below -
BEST FILM
Kayattam (A’Hr) – Malayalam – Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Lootcase – Hindi – Rajesh Krishnan
Ludo – Hindi – Anurag Basu
Sherni – Hindi- Amit Masurkar
Soorarai Pottru – Tamil – Sudha Kongara
Tasher Ghawr – Bengali – Sudipto Roy
BEST INDIE FILM
Fire in the Mountains – Hindi – Ajitpal Singh
God on the Balcony – Assamese – Biswajeet Bora
Laila aur Satt Geet – Gojri, Hindi – Pushpendra Singh
Nasir – Tamil – Arun Karthick
Pinki Elli? – Kannada – Prithvi Konnanur
Seththumaan – Tamil – Thamizh
Sthalpuran – Marathi – Akshay Indikar
The Great Indian Kitchen – Malayalam – Jeo Baby
BEST DIRECTOR
Ajitpal Singh – Fire in the Mountains – Hindi
Akshay Indikar – Sthalpuran – Marathi
Amit Masurkar – Sherni – Hindi
Anurag Basu – Ludo – Hindi
Arun Karthick – Nasir – Tamil
Biswajeet Bora – God on the Balcony - Assamese
Jeo Baby – The Great Indian Kitchen – Malayalam
Pithvi Konnanur – Pinki Elli? – Kannada
Sanal Kumar Sasidharan – Kayattam (A’hr) – Malayalam
Sudha Kongara – Soorarai Pottru - Tamil
BEST ACTOR
Benjamin Daimary – Jonaki Porua -Assamese
Harish Khanna – God on the Balcony – Assamese
Jitin Puthanchery - Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam - Malayalam
Koumarane Valavane – Nasir – Tamil
Neel Deshmukh – Sthalpuran – Marathi
Pankaj Tripathi – Ludo – Hindi
Rajkummar Rao – Ludo – Hindi
Suriya – Soorarai Pottru - Tamil
BEST ACTRESS
Kani Kusruti – Biriyaani – Malayalam
Nimisha Sajayan – The Great Indian Kitchen – Malayalam
Rasika Dugal – Lootcase – Hindi
Rima Kallingal - Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam - Malayalam
Swatika Mukjherjee – Tasher Ghawr – Bengali
Vidya Balan – Sherni – Hindi
Vinamrata Rai – Fire in the Mountains - Hindi
BEST DOCUMENTARY
A Rifle in a Bag – Gondi, Madiya, Hindu – Christina Hanes, Isabella Rinaldi and Arya Rothe
About Mumma – English – Maanvi Chowdhury
Borderlands – Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Punjabi, Other – Samarth Mahajan
Shup Up Sona – English – Deepti Gupta
Watch over Me – Hindi, Malayalam – Farida Pacha
WOMB – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu – Ajitesh Sharma
BEST SERIES
Bandish Bandits – Hindi
Churails – Urdu, Hindi
Mirzapur Season 2 – Hindi
Mismatched – Hindi
The Family Man Season 2 - Hindi
BEST PERFORMANCE (MALE) - SERIES
Ali Fazal – Mirzapur Season 2
Divyenndu – Mirzapur Season 2
Manoj Bajpayee – The Family Man Season 2
Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub – Tandav
Pankaj Tripathi – Mirzapur Season 2
Saif Ali Khan – Tandav
BEST PERFORMANCE (FEMALE) - SERIES
Neena Gupta – Masaba Masaba
Prajakta Koli – Mismatched
Rasika Dugal – Mirzapur Season 2
Samantha Akkineni – The Family Man Season 2
Shahana Goswami – Bombay Begums
Shweta Tripathi Sharma – Mirzapur Season
Image source: IMDb
