Pune: ‘Between Two Dawns’ and ‘Potra’ win big at PIFF

Pune, 10th March 2022: Turkish film ‘Between Two Dawns’ won the Prabhat International Best Film award and Marathi film ‘Potra’ won the Sant Tukaram Best International Marathi film award at the 20th Pune International Film Festival. The closing ceremony of the Festival was held at the National Film Archives of India (NFAI). Both the Best Film awards are sponsored by the government of Maharashtra.

The Prabhat International Best film award is worth Rs 10 lakhs and it is equally divided between the producer and the director of the film. The winning film is directed by Selman Nacar. The film talks about the conflict between morality and maintaining a status quo. It depicts the story of a rich family with naturalism.

The Marathi film Potra that won the Santa Tukaram Best Marathi international Film Award is a story about the lack of voice for women in India and how quickly one can lose freedom as a girl when she becomes a woman. The film was awarded Rs 5 lakh in cash, which would be equally divided between the director and the producer. Director of the film Shankar Dhotre was also awarded the best screenplay writer award for the same film.

In the world competition category, Peter Kereks, director of the film 107 Mothers from Ukrain won the Best International Director award. MIT Human Spirit Award was given to the Russian Film ‘House Arrest’ directed by Aleksey German Jr. Special Jury mentions were given to female actor Maya Vanderbeque for playing the role of Nora in the film Playground. Another Jury Special Mention was given to director Gabor Fabricius for the Film Erasing Frank from Hungary.

In the International Marathi film Competition category, Nikhil Mahajan won the Best Director award for the film Godavari. Chakuli Deokar was awarded with the Best Female Actor for Potra, while legendary actor Dilip Prabhawalkar won the Best Male Actor award for the film ‘It’s Time to Go’. Ramesh Bhosale for the film Niwas and Shamin Kulkarni for Godavari shared the best cinematography award.  Special Jury Mention was given to A. V. Prafullachandra for the music of the film Godavari. Each award in this category is worth Rs 25,000 and has been sponsored by Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal.

All the winners were facilitated at the hands of legendary filmmaker Girish Kasarvalli and renowned scriptwriter Rumi Jaffrey. While addressing the audience, 14 national award winner Kasarvalli highlighted the importance of Film Festivals like PIFF. He said, “It is very important for filmmakers like us to showcase our work to other filmmakers and audiences at the festival. This provides us great feedback that helps us learn about our own films, to get better as filmmakers. We need more such international festivals,” he said.

Jaffrey shared his excitement about PIFF being the first international festival that he has attended. His film Chehre was also showcased at the Festival. Jaffrey who has written most of the David Dhawan hits such as Coolie No. 1, Hero No.1, Judwa etc. said, “I am really thrilled that my film was appreciated at this festival from the likes of legendary directors like Dr Jabbar Patel. PIFF has been an enlightening experience.”

On this occasion, Dr. Jabbar Patel, veteran filmmaker and the festival director of PIFF, Meghraj Raje Bhosale, president, Akhil Bharatiya Chitrapat Mahamandal, Ravi Gupta, secretary, Pune Film Foundation, Satish Alekar, trustee, Pune film Foundation, Samar Nakhate, creative director of PIFF, Abhijeet Randive and Abhijit Deshpande, members of selection committee of PIFF were present on the occasion.

Samar Nakhate delivered the vote of thanks and concluded the ceremony.