Curtains come down on Kolkata International Film Fest Bulgarian movie adjudged best

    Kolkata, Dec 11 (PTI) Bulgarian film ‘Stadoto’ (Tarika), directed by Milko Lazarov, was adjudged the movie in the international competition section of the 30th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), which concluded on Wednesday.
    Ana Endara of Panama got the Best Director award for her film ‘Querido Tropico’ (Beloved Tropic).
    While ‘Stadoto’ won the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award and got prize money of Rs 51 lakh in the International Competition on Innovation in Moving Images, Endara received Rs 21 lakh as the best director in the international segment.
    ‘Stadoto’ director Milko Lazarov also got the Fipresci award in the international category for the film.
    The movie tells the story of a man’s love for his gifted daughter, which puts him at odds with the prejudiced townsfolk.
    "My film talks about freedom of the soul. Cinema has a universal language. Happy that it got so much acclaim here," Lazarov told PTI after the function.
    The Special Jury Award in the international section went to ‘Arillo de Hombre Muerto’ (Dead Man's Switch (Mexico) by Alejandro Gerber Bicecci.
    The Best Director in Indian Language Films (Hiralal Sen Memorial Award) went to Aaryan Chandra Prakash for his film ‘Aajoor’ which got a prize money of Rs 5 lakh.
    The Best Film in Indian Language Films (Hiralal Sen Memorial Award) went to ‘Lachhi’ by Krishnegowda who got a cash award of Rs 10 lakh.
The Special Jury Award in Indian Language Films went to ‘Nukkad Naatak’ (A street play) by Tanmaya Shekhar.
In the Bengali Panorama, ‘Dhrubor Aschorjo Jibon’ (The strange life of Dhrubo) by Abhijit Chowdhury was the winner with a prize money of Rs 7,50,000.
The Asian Select NETPAC Award for Best Film went to ‘Putulnama’ (Dolls Don’t Die) by Ranajit Ray.
The Best Indian Documentary Film (Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award) was given to ‘Bhabotosher Karkhana’ (Bhabotosh and his rocket factory) by Dipanjan Chowdhury.
Altogether 179 films from 29 countries were screened in the festival that kicked off on December 4.
Congratulating the winners, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in an audio message from Digha that she is delighted with the huge response among film lovers in this carnival of cinema.
Requesting KIFF Chairman Goutam Ghosh to start preparations for the next edition of the film festival, Banerjee said, "The constant effort by the team led by Ghosh made the 30th edition such a roaring success like past years."
She called upon foreign producers and directors to come to the next festival again and advocated hand-holding between the film fraternity, film lovers of Bengal and abroad for more people-to-people and art exchanges.
"The selection screening and awarding of films across the globe including India shows the language of cinema is universal," the CM said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)