‘Against The Tide,’ ‘The Monk And The Gun’ Among Mumbai Film Festival Winners
Sarvnik Kaur’s documentary “Against the Tide” has won the Golden Gateway Award at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. The film previously won awards at Sundance, Sydney and Seattle and best documentary at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards on the same evening as Mumbai.
Diwa Shah’s San Sebastian winner “Bahadur: The Brave” received Mumbai’s Silver Gateway Award. The festival’s Gender Sensitivity Award, for a film that challenges gender stereotypes and norms, which is decided by India’s Film Critics Guild, was won by Leesa Gazi’s “Barir Naam Shahana” (“A House Named Shahana”). The Special Jury Award went to Kanu Behl’s “Agra,” which premiered at Cannes earlier this year.
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The Rashid Irani Young Critics’ Choice Award, a program created by the festival to nurture young writers on cinema, was won by Shahrukhkhan Chavada’s “Kayo Kayo Colour?” Dominic Sangma’s Locarno title “Rimdogittanga” (“Rapture”) won the NETPAC Award.
This year, global media company Civic Studios teamed with the festival to create a new category of award, the Light Camera Impact Award. This award recognized two short films focusing on subjects of climate, sexuality, and caste – “Blackhole” by Pradyumna Patil and “Praan Pratishthana” (“Consecration”) by Pankaj Sonawane. “Flowering Man” by Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar got a special mention in this category.
The IMDb Audience Choice Award was won by Pawo Choyning Dorji’s “The Monk and the Gun.”
Filmmakers selected for the festival’s self-explanatory Jio MAMI Select – Filmed on iPhone initiative include Archana Atul Phadke, Faraz Ali, Prateek Vats, Saurav Rai and Saumyananda Sahi. They will be mentored by Vishal Bhardwaj who directed the iPhone short “Fursat,” Vikramaditya Motwane (“Jubilee”) and Rohan Sippy (“Bluffmaster”).
The closing ceremony was hosted by actor Kalki Koechlin (“Goldfish”).
The festival opened with Hansal Mehta’s “The Buckingham Murders,” starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, opened the festival on Oct. 27. The closing film, Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla,” screened at the festival on Nov. 3. MUBI owns all rights to “Priscilla” in India. The film will release across the country via MUBI in partnership with PVR Inox Pictures.
This year the festival hosted masterclasses with jury head Mira Nair, excellence in cinema recipients Mani Ratnam and Luca Guadagnino, festival chair Priyanka Chopra Jonas and juror David Michôd. The festival’s Industry Connect Symposium featured a keynote from leading producer Siddharth Roy Kapur and included case studies of Shubhashish Bhutiani’s Venice winner “Hotel Salvation” and Bauddhayan Mukherji’s Durban winner “The Violin Player.”
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