Ninth SAARC Film Festival Award Winners

Ninth SAARC Film Festival 2019
AWARD WINNERS AND CITATIONS

1. BEST FEATURE FILM – NAGARKIRTAN – INDIA
For its most sensitive and delicate employment of the emphatic power of cinema, not just in depicting truth but understanding beyond prejudice, cultural, religious and gender borders.

2. BEST SHORT FILM – NA BOLE WO HARAM – INDIA
For its playful yet vital depiction of the young generation, searching within the deep cultural bias, and finally finding balance in understanding the moral code of right and wrong.

3. BEST DIRECTOR – MR. KAUSHIK GANGULY for the film NAGARKIRTAN – INDIA
For taking full reins in giving humanity, nuance, colour, exigency, impetus and form to a narrative of beautiful sexual identity and self-creation, beyond the tragedies of social prejudices.

4. BEST SCREENPLAY – Mr. AZIZ DEILDAR for the film LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT – AFGHANISTAN
For its courage to finally speak the truth about real events behind closed doors, the complex and corrosive relationship between government law and customary law and the unspoken but systemic depiction of injustice against a woman in Afghanistan

5. BEST ACTOR – MR. RIDDHI SEN in the film – NAGARKIRTAN – INDIA
For his sharply measured yet intricately beguiling portrayal of the inner life and outer transformations of a young boy coming out painstakingly from of its own constricting chrysalis into the light and embrace of self-acceptance as a woman.

6.BEST ACTRESS – MS. ANOMA JANADARI in the film DAVENA VIHAGUN – SRI LANKA
For her stoic but powerful, silent and blistering portrayal of “mother courage” in facing countless brutal degradation, and humiliation in carrying the double burden of being the centre and periphery of boundless, selfless parental love.

7. BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER – MR. ENAMUL HOQUE SOHEL for the film FAGUN HAOAY – BANGLADESH
For cinematically depicting the milieu, scope and period of historical significance, making each frame vital not just in pushing the narrative, but highlighting the culture, identity and aspirations of a collective mass of people.

8. BEST EDITOR – AJITH RAMANAYAKE & KATHARINA WARTENA for the film – DAVENA VIHAGUN – SRI LANKA
For creating an immersive and riveting experience, by combining the push and flow of slow takes, and precise cuts, weaving a tragic tale of inevitability unto its bleakest end.

9. BEST SOUND DESIGNER – MR. RIPON NATH for the film FAGUN HAOAY – BANGLADESH
For creating a tumultuous aural tapestry of the native spoken languages of a country and its people, in their everyday struggle and escalating conviction against a power-hungry and repressive foreign regime.

10. BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MR. PRABUDDHA BANERJEE for the film NAGARKIRTAN – INDIA
For musically rendering the arrestingly soft, intoxicating and painstaking beauty of a unique kind of love between a musician and a young paramour, against the harsh realities of social judgement and prejudice.

11. Special Jury Award – (PERFORMANCE) – MS. SWASTIMA KHADKA for the film BULBUL – NEPAL
For fully committing and brilliantly bringing out the pain and agony, and still imbibing indefatigable courage, balancing mental, emotional and physical turmoil authentically, in a performance both fully transformed and transformative.

12. SPECIAL JURY (DIRECTION AND STORY) – MR. PRAVEEN MORCHHALE
For the film WALKING WITH THE WIND – INDIA
For mightily depicting a moving story of childhood innocence and single-minded purpose, and for its definitive direction and self-assured telling of its simple but joyful story.
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NB: ADDITIONAL AWARDS PRESENTED AT THE DISCRETION OF THE JURY
13. SPECIAL JURY RECOGNITION (Certificate only):
TRADITION – SRI LANKA (for strong FEMALE PERSPECTIVE)
For courageously depicting the struggles of a young woman in reconciling personal relationships with gender politics and cultural bias, by giving light into her inner life and emotional nakedness.

14. SPECIAL JURY RECOGNITION (Certificate only):
TATTINI (Moon is Bright Tonight) –  NEPAL
For its picturesque and encompassing view of societal tradition and norm, in a story of a woman’s continued fight for marital ownership, acceptance and respect.