The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2022 (IFFM) after much fanfare has announced the winners for the coveted awards for its 13th edition. It was a tough time for the jury members to choose winners from the impressive nominations across several categories and movies across languages. This year the festival has an impressive lineup of films, short films, documentaries representing Indian cinema and from the neighbouring countries.
The festival was attended by various dignitaries of the Victorian government in Melbourne at the iconic Palais theatre. A plethora of Indian actors and artists were part of the celebration in person during the festival were Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Tamannaah Bhatia, Vaani Kapoor, Kabir Khan, Shefali Shah, Shoojit Sircar, Anurag Kashyap, Nikkhil Advani, Mohit Raina, Sona Mohapatra, Mini Mathur, Suresh Triveni, former cricketer and ex-captain of Indian cricket team, Kapil Dev, Vikram Malhotra, Shibashish Sarkar, Sunir Kheterpal amongst many others. The awards night was hosted by Rithvik Dhanjani.
IFFM 2022, honoured with Leadership in Cinema Award to Abhishek Bachchan, Vaani Kapoor was awarded with Disruptor in Cinema award for her path breaking performance in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui. The team of Jalsa starring Vidya Balan, Shefali Shah directed by Suresh Triveni and produced by Vikram Malhotra of Abundantia Entertainment was awarded with the Equality in Cinema Award. Former cricketer Mr Kapil Dev was awarded with Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Ranveer Singh said after getting the best actor award for 83, “I thank the jury members at IFFM for bestowing me with the Best Actor of the year for my role as Kapil Dev in the film 83, one of the most loved films in my career. It’ll always be one of the most cherished films in my filmography. But more than the accolades it’s the process of making the film that I cherish the most. I am thankful to Kabir Sir for giving me this opportunity, for guiding me and for inspiring me. I share this honour with the cast and crew of 83 who are so dear to me, and with whom I share very warm bond and I dedicate this honour to Kapil’s Devil’s on whom this story is based a fine bunch of gentlemen who dared to dream and through their efforts and achievements showed us that we Indians can be the best in the world.”
Vaani Kapoor said after winning the Disruptor in Cinema Award, “It’s so special and kind of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and Mitu to recognise such a film and giving so much dignity, respect and love and accepted it and to have a great inclusion of Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui in a film festival. It feels so special and surreal.”
Abhishek Bachchan said while accepting the Leadership in Cinema Award, “I thank IFFM for giving me Leadership in Cinema award, I am extremely ecstatic being considered for this prestigious award by the Victorian Government and the film festival. Even though this award is not for the best actor, I am very much certain to come back to the festival soon enough for the best actor award too as I am certain I’ll soon get it.”
Spearheaded by director of the film festival Mitu Bhowmik Lange, this year IFFM started physically and virtually, from 12-20 August 2022. It is one of the biggest Indian film festivals that takes place outside of India and is also the only Indian film festival backed by the Australian government. The film festival will showcase more than 100 critically acclaimed movies.
Here’s the complete list of winners – IFFM 2022
Best Documentary – A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia
Best Actor in a Series – Mohit Raina for Mumbai Diaries 26/11
Best Actress in a Series – Sakshi Tanwar for MAI
Best Series – Mumbai Diaries 26/11 by Nikkhil Advani
Best Indie Film – Jaggi directed by Anmol Sidhu (Punjabi)
Best Director – Jointly won by Shoojit Sircar for Sardar Udham and Aparna Sen for The Rapist
Best Actor – Ranveer Singh for 83
Best Actress – Shefali Shah for Jalsa
Best Film – 83 directed by Kabir Khan
Equality in Cinema – The team of Jalsa directed by Suresh Triveni
Disruptor in Cinema Award – Vaani Kapoor for Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui
Lifestyle Achievement Award – Kapil Dev
Leadership in Cinema Award – Abhishek Bachchan
