THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Mexican movie, `Parque Via,’ which portrays the complicated daily life of the caretaker of a large house, has bagged the Golden Pheasant (Suvarna Chakoram) award for the best film of IFFK-2008. A purse of Rs.10 lakh was presented to its director Enrique Rivero by Cultural Minister M.A. Baby at the valedictory function here on Friday. Mariana Rondon, who directed the Venezuelan movie `Postcards from Leningrad,’ won the silver pheasant for the best director, which also carries a cash prize of Rs.3 lakh. The silver pheasant for the best debutante director has been given to Huseyin Karabey, director of Turkish movie `My Marlon and Brando.’ Uberto Pasolini’s movie from Sri Lanka, `Machan,’ was chosen the best movie by the audience. Nandita Das, who directed `Firaaq’ and the Algerian movie `Yellow House’ by Amor Hakker received special mention by the jury. `Postcard from Leningrad’ won the FIPRESCI award for the best feature film. `My Marlon and Brando’ is the best Asian movie, according to Netpac. Anjali Menon’s Malayalam movie `Manjadikkuru’ bagged two coveted awards - FIPRESCI award for the best Malayalam movie and Hassankutty award for the best debut Malayalam director. `Adayalangal’ by M.G. Sasi is the best Malayalam movie, according to Netpac. A jury chaired by Brazilian film maker Lucia Murat and comprising Russian film maker Sitora Alieva, Marathi film director and theatre personality Jabbar Patel and young Iranian film maker Samira Makhmalbaf has chosen the award winning movies. A jury of Chris Fujiwara, Barbara Lorey and Manoj Barpujari picked the FIPRESCI awardees. The Netpac jury comprised Max Tessier, Freddie Wong and Sudhir Mishra.
The valedictory function began with an invocation by Zilla Khan’s Sufi music. The best movie `Parque Via’ was screened for the public after the award distribution ceremony. Sangeetha Unnithan (The Hindu), Sajeev Pazhoor (Deshabhimani) and Siji Kadakkal (Indiavision) won the media awards for reporting IFFK. All India Radio’s Anil K.Nambiar received special mention.
State Awards Speaking at the valedictory function, Minister M.A. Baby said the Government would considerably hike the prize amount of state film awards from next year. ``The award money will be almost doubled,’’ he said.
Minister M. Vijayakumar presided. Minister C. Divakaran, Pannian Raveendran MP, Chalachitra Academy chairman K.R.Mohanan and KSFDC chairman K.G.George spoke.
