The 12th Edition of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Announces 2021 Award Winners

Nimisha Sajayan and Suraj Venjaramoodu as newlyweds in The Great Indian Kitchen

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) announced on Friday,  August 20, its grand winners for its 12thedition, which was held virtually. This year’s festival boasted an impressive line-up of feature and short films from across the cinemas of India.

Representing the theme of Diversity through Cinema, IFFM had an overwhelming response from across the globe.The festival was attended by various dignitaries of Australia, The Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria, The Honourable Minister Luke Donellan, Minister for Child Protection, Disability, Ageing and Carers, Ms. Caroline Pitcher, CEO Film Victoria and by eminent Indian artists like Anurag Kashyap, Shoojit Sircar, Richa Chadha, Sriram Raghavan, with Onir as the presenter of the awards. 

IFFM honored Pankaj Tripathi with the Prestigious Diversity in Cinema Award presented by LaTrobe University. Additionally, Soorarai Pottru walked away with the Best Feature Film and Suriya won the Best Actor award from the same film.

Vidya Balan won the Best Actress for her widely acclaimed film ‘Sherni’ and ‘Mirzapur S2’ was given the Best Series Award. Ace filmmaker Anurag Basu picked up the Best Director trophy for the feature film ‘Ludo’.

The Equality in Cinema Award for Short Film was given to Sheer Qorma, and Best Indie was given to ‘Fire in the Mountain’. 

Speaking about the winners, the festival’s director Mitu Bhowmick-Lange, said, “We congratulate all the winners and their teams for making great films that were loved by the audiences across the globe. It is about time that we have conversations in cinema and about cinema that are not mainstream and biased. It is time to present the diverse sensibilities through narratives that are ground-breaking and all the winners of the IFFM awards symbolize this fervour of thought.” 


All the laurel artworks for these winners are uploaded on this linkhttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gZhyyotMlm4AqBipkc4bhpzPEbOfxAmF?usp=sharing


Here’s a complete list of winners: 


IFFM Short Film Competition (India) 
MIXI (CHAKKI) | Directed by Jyotsna Puthran

IFFM Short Film Competition (Australia) Notun Surjo – The New Sun | Directed by Pulak Bose

Jury Special Mention: Vikas Khanna for Valley of Fireflies  

Best Feature Film – Soorarai Pottru


Best Performance Male (Feature) – Suriya Sivakumar (Soorarai Pottru)

Best Performance Female (Feature) – Vidya Balan (Sherni)

Best Director – Anurag Basu (Ludo)

Best Series – Mirzapur Season 2

Best Performance (Female) in a Series – Samantha Akkineni (The Family Man 2)

Best Performance (Male) in a Series – Manoj Bajpayee (The Family Man 2)

Equality in Cinema (Short Film) – Sheer Qorma

Equality in Cinema Award (Feature Film) – ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ and ‘God on the Balcony’

Best Indie Film – ‘Fire in the Mountains’


Diversity in Cinema Award – Pankaj Tripathi (presented by LaTrobe University) 

IFFM Disruptor Award – Sanal Kumar Sasidharan

Jury Special Mention – Prithvi Konanur – Best Director for Pinki Elli

Best Documentary Film ”“ Shut Up Sona

Jury special mention : Nimisha Sajayan : Best Performance (female) : The Great Indian Kitchen 

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