BHUBANESWAR: No Odia film has been selected in the Best Regional Film category of 66th National Film Awards which were announced by the Directorate of Film Festivals on Friday.
The Directorate, under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, announced the awards for films made in 2018. Four films were sent to the Directorate for nominations including Manmohan Mahapatra’s ‘Bhija Matira Swarga’ and ‘Kokoli’ by Snehasis Das. However, none of these was nominated for the awards by the five-member panel that was headed by film director Vinod Ganatra.
Sabyasachi Mahapatra, who was in the central panel of the feature films jury, said none of the four Odia films could match the quality set by the Directorate for National Film Awards.
The last time an Odia film was selected for National Film Awards was in 2017 when ‘Hello Arsi’ got two awards and a Special Mention. The film directed by late Sambit Mohanty was selected for the 65th National Film Awards as the Best Odia Film.
The 90-minute film also earned Mohanty the National Award for Best Dialogue and actress Prakruti Mishra bagged the Special Mention Award for her character ‘Arsi’.