We present the winners of the 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival that took place from November 11th – 18th, in Kolkata, India.
Women Filmmaker’s Competition
Best Film
Another Time by Nahid Hasanzaedh – Iran | 2016 – 82 min.
Ghadir, a chemical plant worker, protesting against being unpaid for over a year, is arrested during a demonstration and imprisoned without trial. He’s released one year later with no explanation given. On arriving home he finds his daughter, Somayeh, has given birth out of wedlock.
Best Director
Yoyo Yao for Yesterday Once More – China | 2016 – 110 min.
Relentlessly pressured by her mother, class monitor Lin Tianjiao is determined to make it to college, and has given up everything, including boys and her passion for astronomy, that could get in her way of studying finance at elite Qinghua University, Beij
Jury Award – Special Mention
Cheer Me Up by Mili Ben Hayl, Tamar Shippony – Israel | 2016 – 75 min.
Gili dreams of becoming an independent woman. Noam, her husband, cannot possibly think of releasing his hold of her, he loves her to death. One day Gili secretly starts working, but unfortunately Noam is convinced that she’s cheating on him. They both use their 8-year old son, Assaf, as a trading card in order to get bits of information about each other. The film reveals a 48-hour glimpse in the life of a family living in the shadow of domestic violence.
Innovations in Moving Images Competition
Best Film
Glory by Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov – Bulgaria, Greece | 2016 – 101 min.
Tsanko Petrov, a railroad worker finds millions of leva on the train tracks. He decides to turn the entire amount over to the police, and the state rewards him with a new wristwatch, but soon the new watch stops working. Meanwhile, Julia Staikova, head of the PR department of the Ministry of Transport, loses Petrov’s old watch. And here starts his desperate struggle to get his old watch back, as well as his dignity.
Best Director
Kivanc Sezer by My Father’s Wings – Turkey | 2016 – 101 min.
Ibrahim and his nephew Yusuf work as construction workers in a luxury house construction site in Istanbul. Ibrahim finds out that he has a severe lung cancer. Working conditions become harder each day but Ibrahim is constrained to complete the work in the site. Then a work accident happens in the construction site in which family of the worker is paid compensation and when Ibrahim gets to know, his conflict starts. On the other hand, Ibrahim’s nephew, Yusuf who is full of life and ambition witnesses his uncle’s progression of the illness and state of being it will be a milestone for him.
NETPAC Award For Asian Competition
Best Film
Singing in Graveyards by Bradley Liew – Malaysia, Philippines | 2016 – 143 min.
Pepe, a 68-year-old impersonator of a Filipino rock legend, lives alone on the borders of reality, imagination and mysticism. One day, he is finally given the chance to open for the rock legend’s concert but he must do something neither of them has done before-write a love song.
Lady of the Lake by Haobam Paban Kumar – India | 2016 – 123 min.
“Loktak Lairembi” is about one of the last dwellers on Loktak Lake’s phumdi biomass is Tomba. He is a depressed fisherman. When Tomba finds a gun, it becomes his companion and makes him aggressive, cocky and quick to pick fights-until an old woman knocks on his door one night. Believing that the lady is the spirit of all evils, Tomba chases her and commits an unintended crime.
National Short Competition
Best Film
Tou-tai (Seed) by Ashok Veilou – India | 2016 – 14 min.
Vio, 24 years and a militant comes home for a short vacation. The effect of Indian Army’s counter Insurgency operation in Manipur is his village is seen and felt through the life of his younger sister in the film.
National Documentary Film Competition
Best Film
I am Bonnie by Farha Khatun, Satarua Santra & Sourabh Kanti Dutta
India | 2015 – 45 min.
This is a story of Bonnie, a born intersex, an ace footballer, who was raised by poor, illiterate and confused parents as a girl child.
To know more about this festival you can visit the FESTIVAL PROFILE or the official website HERE.
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