With a promise to be back next year, bigger and better, the final day of the first edition of Navi Mumbai International Film Festival (NMIFF) unfolded.
After two days of celebrating cinema, the third final saw movies like Touring talkies, directed by Gajendra Ahire, Surkhab, directed by Sanjay Talreja, Echo, directed by Suraj Nair, and Why Mom, directed by Jay B Ghadiali among others.
Post the movie screenings, the celebration started by an award ceremony to felicitate the talent of established as well as young & independent filmmakers from across the globe. The jury rewarded Lost House by Nikolay Kotyash from Russia as the best film under the student shorts category and Prism by Sandip Pandurang Mane from India won the second prize under the student shorts category. Prios Feher Zold (red, white and green) by Tarek Raffoul from Lebanon won the first prize for the best documentary under the students category and [tha-ki-ta-tha] – Talking Drums by Philipp Holl from Germany won the second prize for the best documentary under the students category.
Ms. Swati Kole performed a beautiful Kathak dance at the finale. Captain Sudhir Singh Chaudhari’s first Ghazal album “Aashnaayee” was launched by Salim Arif and Ashok Purang. The cast and crew of the movie W released the official trailer of the movie and shared their experience working on this film which speaks about men of yesterday v/s women of today. This was followed by Armaan Kohli singing a song from the movie. Arman Kohli also happens to be the youngest voice for Salman Khan for the movie Jai Ho.
Moving ahead, the short film The Only Man by Jos Man from Spain was rewarded as the best film under the professional shorts and the second prize was won by Suitcase directed by Krishnendu Karar from India. Under the social awareness category, P.M. Postmortem by Balasaheb Gore & Arun Newaskar from India won the first prize and Why Mom by Jay B Ghadiali from India won the second prize under social awareness category. The best documentary award under the professional shorts was given to Maliwood Talks by Sudhir Kasabe from India and We Win or We Die by Matthew Millan from USA won the second prize for the best documentary under the professional shorts category. Vartul by Santosh Ram from India got a special mention.
The award for the best feature film was given to Touring Talkies by Gajendra Ahire from India and Melina by Demetrio Casile from Italy won the second prize for the best feature film. Satnaagat by Raju Parsekar from India got a special mention under the best feature film category. Satnaagat by Raju Parsekar from India got a special mention under the best feature film category.
The cast and crew of the upcoming movie Filmistaan was present at the closing.
Filmistaan which is scheduled to release on 21st March, 2014 is directed by Nitin Kakkar, and stars Sharib Hashmi and Gopal Tiway. Acclaimed director Ravi Jadhav was felicitated by Navi Mumbai International Film Festival for his contribution to Indian cinema. The award winning director of Natarang, Balgandharva, Balak Palak and the recent box office hit Timepass.
Director Nagesh Kukunoor was present at NMIFF and said, “Everything starts small and eventually grows and am sure NMIFF will only grow with every passing year.
Mr. Sachin Khanna, Founder and Chairman, NMIFF said, “These three days of NMIFF has been a dream come true. We promise to come back next year with more films on a much bigger platform. I would like to thank each and every one of you for making the first edition of NMIFF a great success.”
NMIFF received an overwhelming support by Mr. Pramod Hindurao, Honourable Mayor of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation Mr Sagar Naik, Ex-MLC of Navi Mumbai and senior NCP leader Mrs Manda Mhatre and Pro-Chancellor, Dr. DY Patil University, and President, Dr. DY P Sports Academy, Mr Vijay Patil.
With over 40 films from 11 countries around the world screened that inspired, the first edition of Navi Mumbai International Film Festival was truly a grand success.
Witnessing day 3 unfold, was a star studded audience which included Nagesh Kukunoor, among Mr. Marc Baschet, Mr. Imtiaz Hussain, Ms. Rohini Hattanagadi. The core team of NMIFF includes Mr Ashok Purang, Festival Director, Mr Besharad Mr Ashok Purang, Festival Director, and Mr Sachin Khanna, Festival Founder and Chairman of NMIFF, Capt. Samir Walavalkar, Director – Business & Finance, Bisharad Basnet, Director – IT & Digital Networking, Mr. Salim Arif, Director of Cultural affairs, NMIFF, Capt Vaibhav Igatpurikar, and Capt Mohan Shinde.
