83, Jalsa, The Rapist among top winners; Ranveer Singh, Shefali Shah bag top acting honors at IFFM Awards

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2022 (IFFM) has announced the winners for the coveted awards for its 13th edition. It was a tough task 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, and 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. Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Tamannaah Bhatia, Vaani Kapoor, Kabir Khan, Shefali Shah, Shoojit Sircar, Anurag Kashyap, former cricketer and ex-captain of Indian cricket team, Kapil Dev, Vikram Malhotra, Shibashish Sarkar, Sunir Kheterpal amongst many others attended the event. The awards night was hosted by Rithvik Dhanjani.

IFFM 2022, honoured Abhishek Bachchan with Leadership in Cinema Award, 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 Award.

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 a 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, "It's so special and kind of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne to recognise such a film. 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 the director of the film festival Mitu Bhowmik Lange, this year IFFM is being held both physically and virtually, from August 12 to 20. 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.

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