Rani Mukerji, Ranbir Kapoor amongst the winners of the IFFM Awards 2018  

It was a grand spectacle on Sunday night in Melbourne, Australia as some of the biggest Bollywood stars attended the annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards Night. This year themed on inclusion at its core, the festival kicked off on 10th of August and witnessed its biggest even last night at the Palais Theatre one of the oldest and most iconic landmarks of Melbourne.

The awards night started off with a grand red carpet celebrating various cultures of India with a grand welcome to each guest. Some of Australia’s senior ministers and members of the Australian film fraternity including director of Dev Patel’s Lion, Garth Davis also attended the award ceremony. The night witnessed various performances of various dance forms from India, but the highlight was the energetic and soulful performance of Sachin-Jigar and also the phenomenal comedy set by comedian and host of the night, Saadiya Ali.

Hichki, Sanju and soon to be released Love Sonia took the majority of awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Indie Film. The marvellous team of Mahanati took home the Equality in Cinema Award and Freida Pinto was conferred with the award for Diversity in Cinema award. The highlight of the night was Simi Garewal’s moving speech when she gave away the highest award of the night, Excellence in Cinema Award to Rani Mukerji.

Richa Chadha, who won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Love Sonia, said, “Today standing here accepting this award I want to say that without having someone who knows someone and being an outsider, I feel like I have made it. So I feel if I can do it and be an actor, so can you. Just hang it in there and if you’re talented things will come to you. I feel elated to win this award. I was one of the last people to come obo board for Love Sonia but I’m so glad I did. It’s an important film and it must be seen by people know of the importance of the topic.”

Rani Mukerji, winner of the Best Actress and Excellence in Cinema awards, said, “Thank you Melbourne and thank you to IFFM. This is my first award after becoming a mother, so it’s very special. And I’m so honoured that such a brilliant jury chose me as the winner. I usually don’t give importance to awards but with Hichki, it’s different. We made this film to create awareness and I feel there’s little people know about Tourette’s and I feel by winning this award if people get more curious to discover the film even today it will help the larger idea.”

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Indie Film: Love Sonia

Best Indie Film Special Mention: Gali Guleiyan (In the shadows)

Equality in Cinema: Mahanati

Diversity Award: Freida Pinto

Best Actor: Manoj Bajpayee for Gali Guleiyan

IFFM VANGUARD AWARD: Ranbir Kapoor for his Breakthrough Performance in Sanju

Best Actress: Rani Mukerji, Hichki

Best film: Sanju

Best Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Best Supporting Performance: Vicky Kaushal for Sanju and Richa Chadha for Love Sonia

Excellence in Cinema: Rani Mukerji