MUMBAI: Assamese filmmaker Rima Das' 'Village Rockstar' dominated the Jio MAMI 19th Mumbai Film Festival, bagging three awards here tonight.
The movie chronicles the story of a girl, Dhunu, who has grown up in deprivation. She learns to fend for herself in the hostile surroundings while nurturing her dream to own a guitar someday.
The film was screened in the 'India Gold' section of the festival here and bagged the top prize, the Golden Gateway award.
'Village Rockstar' also took home two other honours -- Oxfam Best Film for Gender Equality award and Young Critics Choice award.
Receiving the top honour, an emotional Das said the people thought she had gone "mad" while making the film but will now have a "very happy Dilwali".
"I will be grateful to MAMI and jury for the award.
Specially to my children. They believed in me for four years, never questioned me. Most of the people thought I was mad, spoiling the children. But my family believed in me. I struggled for eight years, looking for an acting job in Mumbai. My family's support was with me and produced two of my films. I am a happy woman today," she said.
The Silvery Gateway award in the India Gold section went to 'Machines' by Rahul Jain. The Grand Jury prize was taken by Manoj Bajpayee starrer 'In The Shadows' directed by Dipesh Jain.
The special mention went to 'Up Down and Sideways' and 'S Durga', respectively.
The International competition top prize, the Golden Gateway award, went to 'Summer 1993' by Carla Simon.
"I was not expecting this. I am very happy. It's my first tome in India. Thank you to the festival, the jury. I am super happy," Simon said.
The Silver Gateway Award went to 'Quest' by Jonathan Olshefski, while the Grand Jury went to 'The Wound' by John Trengove.
'Scary Mother' and 'I am not a Witch' bagged the special mention.
The Audience choice award went to 'On Body and Soul'.
The Dimensions Mumbai Golden Gateway award went to 'Vacancy' by Anurag Worlikar, while the silver gateway award went to 'The Wolf of Chawl Street'. The Special jury mention went to 'Bambaiwale'.
Naseeruddin Shah starrer 'The Hungry', directed by Bornila Chatterjee, bagged The Oxfam special jury mention.
"Voices of the talking stars' by Madhuja Mukherjee bagged the Excellence in writing on cinema, English, while the Hindi category went to 'Lata: Sur Gatha', penned by Yatindra Mishra.
In the 'Half Ticket' section, the Golden Gateway feature film award went to 'The Day My Father Became A Bush' while the Silver Gateway award was bagged by 'Cloudboy'.
The 19th edition of the festival showcased over 220 films from 49 countries in 51 languages. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap's 'Mukkabaaz' opened the festival while Hansal Mehta's 'Omerta' was the closing film.
The award ceremony was attended by celebrities like Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor, Kabir Khan, Anurag Kashyap, Rajkumar Hirani, Hansal Mehta, Kiran Rao, Ashutosh Gowariker, Rajkummar Rao, Sudhir Mishra, Kriti Kharbanda, Tanishtha Chatterjee among others.
The evening was hosted by Sayani Gupta and Radhika Apte.
Festival Director, Anupama Chopra announced that the next edition of the MAMI will be from October 25 to November 1, 2018.