BENGALURU: Five Kannada films bagged top honours at the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) awards. Hajj, directed by Nikhil Manjoo Lingaiah, was conferred the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy Award in the Kannada cinema competition category, and won a `2 lakh cash prize.
Special jury awards were presented to Mahantesh Ramadurga’s Agasi Parlour, a film about the impact of a mobile tower and a flashy hair salon on the livelihood of a barber, and Panchakshari’s Prakruti, in which a Brahmin farmer’s faith in God and nature result in unpredictable upheavals. The films were given a cash prize of `1 lakh each.
December 1 by P Sheshadri won the NET PAC Jury Award and Prakash Babu’s Atti Hannu Mattu Kanaja (Fig Fruit and the Wasps) got a special mention. The awards were announced by the jury. Sheshadri’s film talks about the impact of a chief minister’s much-publicised overnight stay at the house of a Dalit family in northern Karnataka, while Prakash Babu’s debut feature is an abstract contemplation of how the rhythm of life changes with the locale.
Other Languages
Bengali film ‘Labour of Love’ by Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Pakistani film ‘Dukhtar’ (Daughter) by Afia Nathaniel, Malayalam film ‘Unto the Dusk’ by Saajin Babu, Marathi film ‘Yellow’ by Mahesh Limaye and Tamil film ‘Panniyarum Padminiyum’ by S U Arun Kumar were the other films that won awards.