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‘Padmaavat’ & ‘Sanju’ lead nominations at IFFM Awards 2018

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) – the southern hemisphere’s greatest annual celebration of Indian cinema – today announces details for their much anticipated 2018 program.

Taking place from 10-22 August under the unifying theme of ‘Inclusion’, this year’s Festival offers all Australians the opportunity to explore the richness and diversity of contemporary Indian cinema, from Bollywood box-office hits, documentaries and art-house premieres, to a Bollywood dance competition and master classes with key figures from the Indian film industry.

The festival this year will see over 60 films in 22 languages. The line up of this year’s festival boasts of a diverse and distinct range of films, many of which will premiere for the first time in Australia and some that have had critical success in the biggest festivals of the world. Over 13 days audiences will get to watch stories about sex trafficking, a bangle seller and his wife, about an old lady reminiscing about her past. They can devour the diversity of India with films like ‘Bhasmasur’ that talks about debt and a father son relationship, ‘Ahare Mon’ which discusses the types of people who are allowed to fall in love and ‘Juze’, that talks about the misuse of power and emotional harassment. They’ll get a taste of mind games with films like ‘In the Shadows’ and ‘Paddayi’, a whiff of Bollywood grandeur with films like ‘Padmaavat’ and will fall in love with movies like ‘Hichki’ and ‘Chumbak’. The festival truly has something for everyone.

This year’s competition section also portrays the diversity of Indian cinema proudly. The jury members will choose between six categories. The categories are Best Film, Best Indie Film, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Role and Best Director. The nominations under each category have been given below.

BEST FILM: ‘Padman’, ‘Hichki’, ‘Padmaavat’, ‘Sanju’, ‘Secret Superstar’, ‘Raazi’, ‘Mahanati’, ‘Rangasthalam’
BEST INDIE FILM: ‘In the Shadows’, ‘Village Rockstars’, ‘Balekempa’, ‘Up, Down and Sideways’ (Documentary), ‘Mayurakshi’, ‘Garbage’, ‘Sir’, ‘Love Sonia’
BEST ACTOR : Ranbir Kapoor for ‘Sanju’, Varun Dhawan for ‘October’, Ranveer Singh for ‘Padmaavat’, Akshay Kumar for ‘Padman’, Manoj Bajpayee for ‘In the Shadows’, Fahadh Faasil for ‘The Exhibit and the Eyewitness’, Soumitra Chaterjee for ‘Mayurakshi’, Shahid Kapoor for ‘Padmaavat’
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE: Vicky Kaushal for ‘Sanju’, Ranvir Shorey for ‘In the Shadows’, Samantha Akkineni for ‘Mahanati’, Richa Chadha for ‘Love Sonia’, Freida Pinto for ‘Love Sonia’, Trimala Adhikari for ‘Garbage’, Meher Vij for ‘Secret Superstar’

BEST DIRECTOR: Rajkumar Hirani for ‘Sanju’, Shoojit Sircar for ‘October’, R. Balki for ‘Padman’, Siddharth P Malhotra for ‘Hichki’, Advait Chandan for ‘Secret Superstar’, Sanjay Leela Bhansali for ‘Padmaavat’, Rima Das for ‘Village Rockstars’, Dipesh Jain for ‘In the Shadows’, Ere Gowda for ‘Balekempa’, Suresh Triveni For ‘Tumhari Sulu’, Meghna Gulzar For ‘Raazi’, Tabrez Noorani for ‘Love Sonia’, Rohena Gera for ‘Sir’
BEST ACTRESS: Rani Mukherjee for ‘Hichki’, Vidya Balan for ‘Tumhari Sulu’, Deepika Padukone for ‘Padmaavat’, Alia Bhatt for ‘Raazi’, Bhanita Das for ‘Village Rockstars’, Keerthy Suresh for ‘Mahanati’, Tillotama Shome for ‘Sir’, Zaira Wasim for ‘Secret Superstar’

Films like Konkona Sharma’s ‘Death in the Gunj’, Alankrita Shrivastava’s ‘Lipstick under my Burkha’, Shakun Batra’s ‘Kapoor and Sons’, Vikramaditya Motwane’s ‘Trapped’, Nitesh Tiwari’s ‘Dangal’, M Manikandan’s ‘Kaaka Muttai’, Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Haider’ and Rahul Bose’s ‘Poorna’ have all been winners at the IFFM Awards.

Mitu Bhowmick Lange, the director says, “ Our competition section is as diverse as the films and people who come for the festival. It has some mainstream, indie and regional films but the one thing they share no matter what the language or theme is that it is fantastic eye catching cinema. That’s always been the goal of the festival to appreciate and applaud those who create films for their audiences. The directors who think about what the fans will like and bring to the screen so many real stories, the actors and actresses who deliver on that to make it most believable and the supporting actors who carry the film and actor on their shoulders. We’ve had an array of brilliant films even in the past, whether they were edgy, quirky, hard hitting or plain beautiful. Our jury is a mix of Australian and Indian directors, producers and actors who together make for the perfect jury with experiences in two different industries but share a common thread, the love for cinema. I cannot wait to see what they choose, especially what our Australian Filmmakers select.”

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne also proudly presents its jury members which consists of notable directors, writers, actors and editors from India and Australia, namely Simi Garewal, Sue Maslin, Jill Bilcock, Andrew Anastaisos, Nikhil Advani and Geoffrey Wright.