JOIN USIFFI 2019: French film 'Particles’ wins Golden Peacock
The 50th edition of the International Film Festival of India has come to a close, with the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for Best Film going to the French film 'Particles', written and directed by Blaise Harrison.
The biggest Indian win was the Silver Peacock for Best Director, which went to Lijo Jose Pellissery for his film 'Jallikattu'.
'Jallikattu' is a ‘Jaws’-like thriller featuring a bull on the loose in Kerala's Idukki district.
Pellissery is winning the prize for the second time in a row, a record-setting development that is likely catapult him to the forefront of discussions on Indian cinema.
Other Indian winners are Marathi actress Usha Jadhav, who won Best Actor (Female) and Abhishek Shah, whose Gujarati film 'Hellaro' won a Special Mention.
The Golden Peacock comes with a Rs 40 lakh cash prize, which is to be split equally between the director and producer.
Pellissery will receive Rs 15 lakh, while Jadhav and Shah will receive Rs 10 lakh each.
Notably, the Silver Peacock for Best Actor (Male) Award, which comes with a prize of Rs 10 lakh, went to Seu Jorge for his portrayal of guerilla Carlos Marighella in Narcos star Wagner Moura’s debut film ‘Marighella’, which is banned in its home country Brazil and was slammed by President Jair Bolsonaro.
IFFI itself got an award at the closing ceremony. Unesco’s International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication presented the festival with the Fellini award for its contributions to cinema.
The closing ceremony, which was attended by Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Union Minister of State Babul Supriyo, lacked the pomp and glamour of the inauguration.
Part of the reason for this was that most international awardees were not present to receive the award and instead sent their acknowledgements through video messages that were shown at large screens at the event.
Another reason may be the lack of crowd-pullers at the level of Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan, who were honoured in the opening ceremony.
The closing ceremony was also attended by celebrities Ilaiyaraja, Rashmika Mandanna, Vijay Devarakonda, Arvind Swamy, Nithya Menen, Rakul Preet Singh, among others. There was a performance by Hariharan and Leslie Lewis of the band Colonial Cousins.
Plans for the 51st edition of IFFI were announced at the closing ceremony: it will celebrate the centenary of Bengali auteur Satyajit Ray.
It was also announced that Karnataka was one of the states from which the most number of delegates had come for this festival.