‘Against the Tide’ by Sarvnik Kaur, ‘Bahadur – The Brave’ by Diwa Shah, and director Kanu Behl’s Agra’ garnered top honors at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival closing event today.
The 10-day film extravaganza, which returned for the first time in three years, began on October 27 with a star-studded opening ceremony at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC).
The jury, led by filmmaker Mira Nair, awarded the South Asia Competition honors on Saturday night. Other members were Australian writer and filmmaker David Michod, Filipino filmmaker and actor Isabel Sandoval, and French cinema critic and festival director Edouard Waintrop.
The panel gave ‘Against the Tide’ the Golden Gateway Award, ‘Bahadur – The Brave’ the Silver Gateway Award, and Kanu Behl’s ‘Agra’ the Special panel Award.
The movie critics guild gender sensitivity prize, which recognizes a film that defies gender preconceptions and conventions, was granted to Leesa Gazi’s ‘Barir Naam Shahana’ (‘A House Named Shahana’). The prize was handed by the jury, which included cinema critic Aditya Shrikrishna and RJ Stutee Ghosh.
Shahrukhkhan Chavada’s ‘Kayo Kayo Colour?’ (Which Color?) got an award through MAMI’s Rashid Irani young critics lab special program, which was intended to foster emerging authors in the field of film. Christian Jeune, director of the film department and deputy general delegate at the Festival de Cannes, presented the award.
Civic Studios, a worldwide media firm, collaborated with Jio MAMI to develop a new category of prize this year at the festival, the Light Camera Impact prize. This prize was given to two non-feature films about climate change, sexuality, and caste.
The goal of these prizes is to highlight compelling short films that generate discussion on socially significant subjects. Civic Studios founder Anushka Shah and filmmaker Kiran Rao presented the honors to two winners: ‘Blackhole’ by Pradyumna Patil and ‘Praan Pratishthana’ (Consecration) by Pankaj Sonawane, with ‘Flowering Man’ by Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar receiving a special mention.
The MAMI Select—Filmed on iPhone was launched by actor Kalki Koechlin, a new program that allows a group of budding filmmakers to reinvent established cinematic conventions by generating high-quality short films filmed on the iPhone 15 Pro Max and edited on the MacBook Pro.
MAMI and Apple have chosen five directors to represent the new age of Indian cinema: Archana Atul Phadke, Faraz Ali, Prateek Vats, Saurav Rai, and Saumyananda Sahi. Filmmakers Vishal Bhardwaj, Vikramaditya Motwane, and Rohan Sippy will coach and guide them.
The IMDb audience choice award for the most popular film at the festival, as decided by festival participants, was one of the most sought-after accolades of the night. The prize was handed to “The Monk and the Gun” by Pawo Choyning Dorji by IMDb India CEO Yaminie Patodia and MAMI festival director Anupama Chopra.
The closing ceremony was preceded by a showing of Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla,’ based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 book, ‘Elvis and Me,’ written with Sandra Harmon’s assistance. Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, and Dagmara Dominczyk feature in the film, which is produced by Sofia Cappola, Lorenzo Mieli, and Youree Henley.
Janhvi Kapoor, Vishal Bhardwaj, Manushi Chillar, Kiran Rao, and Mira Nair were among those who attended the festival’s closing ceremony.
The festival exhibited nearly 300 films in 70 languages from 70 different nations this year. According to the organizers, around 70 of the total films were made by female directors.
On November 4 and 5, the festival is going to show some of the most popular films.