ICFFI ends on a high note

The week-long International Children’s Film Festival (ICFFI) ended on a high note on Wednesday in Hyderabad with Dutch film ‘Kauwboy’ walking away with the biggest award of the evening - the Golden Elephant for Best Live Action Feature. Coming close in second was the Austrian film ‘A Horse on the Balcony’ which received Golden Plaque for Second Best Live Action Feature besides bagging Golden Elephant for Best Live Action Feature (Children’s Jury). The closing ceremony was attended by Governor ESL Narasimhan, his wife Vimala, Information & Cinematography minister DK Aruna and Tollywood Superstar Pawan Kalyan.

The Best Little Director, a category introduced for the first time, witnessed Siddanth Joshi, director of ‘Breaking the Silence’, and directors of ‘Tomato Thief’-- Pawanjit Singh, Anjali Bajaj and Abhishek Sharma -- walking away with the Golden Elephants.

‘Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya’, the opening film of the festival, was awarded the Jury prize for Best Art Direction while ‘Arjun’ walked away with the Golden Elephant for Best Animation feature, Children’s Jury. Another notable Indian winner of the evening was the brothers duo of Devanshu Singh and Satyanshu Singh. Their Kashmiri drama ‘Tamaash’ was adjudged as the Best Short Children’s Jury.

The festival which witnessed 200 films being screened across different screens of Hyderabad was a grand success, said CEO of Children’s Film Society of India (CSFI) Shravan Kumar. “The journey has been satisfying as more than 600 schools participated in the event. The open forums attracted great gathering as children enthusiastically participated in discussing subjects like child rights, children with special needs and the role of gender,” he said and added that social media, too, embraced the festival wholeheartedly.

Minister DK Aruna hoped that the category of Little Directors which attracted 24 entries will multiply by the next film festival. “Hyderabad, a permanent host, has the entire infrastructure to host the festival. State government is keen on giving subsides besides exempting children’s films from entertainment tax,” she added. To a rousing reception Pawan Kalyan, whose presence clearly livened up the proceedings, said that he had to attend the festival since it is for the children. “I love children,” he said.

Addressing Pawan Kalyan as ‘Aaradugula Bullettu’, Narasimhan took everyone by surprise. He said that he was happy to see the children making lots of memories with the festival. The Governor’s speech was interrupted by a member from the crowd who raised slogans of ‘Save Andhra Pradesh’. He was immediately dragged away by the police.

PK Mohanty, chief secretary of the State and Dana Kishore, IAS officer, too, were present at the occasion. As is the case for the past one week, CFSI chairman Amole Gupte was conspicuous by his absence.