Chumbak bags best international Marathi film award

Pune: The film, Chumbak, directed by Sandeep Modi bagged the Government of Maharashtra Sant Tukaram Best International Marathi Film award at the 16th edition of the Pune International Film Festival here on Thursday.

Dithee, directed by Sumitra Bhave, was the ‘audience’s choice’ movie, having bagged the maximum number of votes from the audience.

‘Sant Tukaram Best International Marathi Film Award’ consists of Rs 5lakh, which is shared between director and producer of the film. Another prestigious award, the ‘Government of Maharashtra Prabhat Best International Film’, was bagged by the French-Kurdish movie, Girls of the Sun, directed by Eva Husson. The award consists of Rs10 lakh, which is shared between the director and the producers.

In World Competition category, the movie, A Translator, directed by directors Rodrigo Barriuso and Sebastian Barriuso, was the ‘audience’s choice’. The Barriuso brothers also bagged the Prabhat Beat International Film Director award for the same film. It consists of Rs 5lakh.

The Best Marathi Film Director award was given to Sumitra Bhave, the director of the movie Dithee, The Best Actress Award was bagged by Devika Daftardar for her role in the movie Naal. The Best Male Actor award was presented to Swanand Kirkire for the movie Chumbak. The Best Screenplay Award was also given to Saurabh Bhave and Sandeep Modi for the screenplay of Chumbak, while the Best Cinematography Award was won by cinematographer Dhananjay Kulkarni for the movie Dithee.

The MIT- SFT Human Spirit Award was given to director Pippo Mezzapesa for the movie My Own Good.

The PIFF Special Award, instituted by Maria Prochazakova, for the final year student of direction from FTII was awarded to Sanskruti Chatopadhyay.