Indian Film Festival of Melbourne: Ludo, Sherni, Soorarai Pottru and God on the Balcony bag top nominations

The Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne, one of the biggest international Indian film festivals outside of the country, has announced its nominations for its annual awards ceremony. The festival, which is presented by the Victorian Government, is an annual festival that takes place in Melbourne, Australia, and showcases the best of Indian films that year. In its 12th edition to be held this month, the IFFM 2021 has gone virtual as well as physical due to the global pandemic. With over 100 films whose screening will be held during the event, this will be a celebration of diversity and the best of Indian cinema in all its forms.

Apart from the screenings, the most anticipated ‘IFFM Awards Ceremony’ will also take place during the course of the festival. All set to happen on August 20, this year’s will witness more names than ever joining IFFM’s Roll of Honour, as they have broadened their horizons with new nomination titles to celebrate the Indian film industry holistically.

Adding to its recognition of talent from across various sections of filmmaking, this year the festival is launching three categories under the belt of web shows. Keeping up with the growing trend of OTT shows dominating entertainment content consumption, the festival will recognise Best Series, Best Performance in a series each under the Actor and Actress category. The consideration of these shows are limited to only those platforms which are available to the Australian audiences. The nominations will see films and content which were released between August 2020 to July 2021.

This list of names includes extraordinary films of 2021 such as Ludo directed by Anurag Basu, the Vidya Balan starrer Sherni directed by Amit Masukar, Soorarai Pottru (Tamil) that is starred and produced by Suriya and directed by Sudha Kongara and God on the Balcony, an Assamese film starring Harish Khanna and directed by Biswajeet Bora.

This years Best Documentary category features some of the most compelling stories including Shut Up Sona, W.O.M.B, About Mumma amongst others. Winners of Best Film, Best Indie Film and Best Documentary each win state of the art camera from Black Magic Design apart from the award. Another key highlight is that the Best Film winner automatically gets a nomination nod under the Best Asian Film category at the annual prestigious AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards)

Each year the festival celebrates this prestigious event in its physical form. However, in the wake of the current Australian border lockdown, the award ceremony will be hosted virtually. The IFFM has had the privilege of some of the biggest Australian film talents on the jury panel. This year’s festival jury boasts of jury members that will include names like global award-winning film editor Jill Bilcock, one of Australia’s renowned actors Vince Colosimo and multi award winning director Geoffrey Wright

The Nominations for 2021 are as listed below

BEST FILM

1. Kayattam (A’Hr) – Malayalam – Sanal Kumar Sasidharan

2. Lootcase – Hindi – Rajesh Krishnan

3. Ludo – Hindi – Anurag Basu

4. Sherni – Hindi- Amit Masurkar

5. Soorarai Pottru – Tamil – Sudha Kongara

6. Tasher Ghawr – Bengali – Sudipto Roy

BEST INDIE FILM

1. Fire in the Mountains – Hindi – Ajitpal Singh

2. God on the Balcony – Assamese – Biswajeet Bora

3. Laila aur Satt Geet – Gojri, Hindi – Pushpendra Singh

4. Nasir – Tamil – Arun Karthick

5. Pinki Elli? – Kannada – Prithvi Konnanur

6. Seththumaan – Tamil – Thamizh

7. Sthalpuran – Marathi – Akshay Indikar

8. The Great Indian Kitchen – Malayalam – Jeo Baby

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Ajitpal Singh – Fire in the Mountains – Hindi

2. Akshay Indikar – Sthalpuran – Marathi

3. Amit Masurkar – Sherni – Hindi

4. Anurag Basu – Ludo – Hindi

5. Arun Karthick – Nasir – Tamil

6. Biswajeet Bora – God on the Balcony - Assamese

7. Jeo Baby – The Great Indian Kitchen – Malayalam

8. Pithvi Konnanur – Pinki Elli? – Kannada

9. Sanal Kumar Sasidharan – Kayattam (A’hr) – Malayalam

10. Sudha Kongara – Soorarai Pottru - Tamil

BEST ACTOR

1. Benjamin Daimary – Jonaki Porua -Assamese

2. Harish Khanna – God on the Balcony – Assamese

3. Jitin Puthanchery - Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam - Malayalam

4. Koumarane Valavane – Nasir – Tamil

5. Neel Deshmukh – Sthalpuran – Marathi

6. Pankaj Tripathi – Ludo – Hindi

7. Rajkummar Rao – Ludo – Hindi

8. Suriya – Soorarai Pottru - Tamil

BEST ACTRESS

1. Kani Kusruti – Biriyaani – Malayalam

2. Nimisha Sajayan – The Great Indian Kitchen – Malayalam

3. Rasika Dugal – Lootcase – Hindi

4. Rima Kallingal - Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam - Malayalam

5. Swatika Mukjherjee – Tasher Ghawr – Bengali

6. Vidya Balan – Sherni – Hindi

7. Vinamrata Rai – Fire in the Mountains - Hindi

BEST DOCUMENTARY

1. A Rifle in a Bag – Gondi, Madiya, Hindu – Christina Hanes, Isabella Rinaldi and Arya Rothe

2. About Mumma – English – Maanvi Chowdhary

3. Borderlands – Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Punjabi, Other – Samarth Mahajan

4. Shup Up Sona – English – Deepti Gupta

5. Watch over Me – Hindi, Malayalam – Farida Pacha

6. WOMB – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu – Ajitesh Sharma

BEST SERIES

1. Bandish Bandits – Hindi

2. Churails – Urdu, Hindi

3. Mirzapur Season 2 – Hindi

4. Mismatched – Hindi

5. The Family Man Season 2 - Hindi

BEST PERFORMANCE (MALE) - SERIES

1. Ali Fazal – Mirzapur Season 2

2. Divyenndu – Mirzapur Season 2

3. Manoj Bajpayee – The Family Man Season 2

4. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub – Tandav

5. Pankaj Tripathi – Mirzapur Season 2

6. Saif Ali Khan – Tandav

BEST PERFORMANCE (FEMALE) - SERIES

1. Neena Gupta – Masaba Masaba

2. Prajakta Koli – Mismatched

3. Rasika Dugal – Mirzapur Season 2

4. Samantha Akkineni – The Family Man Season 2

5. Shahana Goswami – Bombay Begums

6. Shweta Tripathi Sharma – Mirzapur Season 2