Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2021 announces its nominations; Ludo, Sherni, Soorarai Pottru and God on the Balcony bag the top nominations this year

Helmed by a prestigious jury, the award ceremony will take place virtually on 20th August
registration open now

Register to watch it on ZOOM:
When: Aug 20, 2021 04:30 PM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpc-mqqTIqGNdRyOBIY19B4B-LiSZiouRi

5th August 2021 – (Mumbai/Melbourne) / The Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne, one of the biggest international
Indian film festivals outside of the country, has just 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 and the subcontinent 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 the 20th of August, 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 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.
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 year’s Best Documentary feature 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 cameras 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.
IFFM 2021 NOMINATIONS
BEST FILM
Sr. No. Film Language Director
1 Soorarai Pottru Tamil Sudha Kongara
2 Sherni Hindi Amit V. Masurkar
3 Tasher Ghawr Bengali Sudipto Roy
4 Lootcase Hindi Rajesh Krishnan
5 Kayattam (A’hr) Malayalam Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
6 Ludo Hindi Anurag Basu
BEST INDIE FILM
Sr. No. Film Language Director
1 Fire in the Mountains Hindi Ajitpal Singh
2 God on the Balcony Assamese Biswajeet Bora
3 Nasir Tamil Arun Karthick
4 Pinki Elli? Kannada Prithvi Konanur
5 Seththumaan Tamil Thamizh
6 The Great Indian Kitchen Malayalam Jeo Baby
7 Sthalpuran Marathi Akshay Indikar
8 Laila Aur Satt Geet Gojri, Hindi Pushpendra Singh
BEST DIRECTOR
Sr. No. Director Film Language
1 Ajitpal Singh Fire in the Mountains Hindi
2 Akshay Indikar Sthalpuran Marathi
3 Amit V. 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 Prithvi Konanur Pinki Elli? Kannada
9 Sanal Kumar Sasidharan Kayattam (A’hr) Malayalam
10 Sudha Kongara Soorarai Pottru Tamil
BEST ACTOR
Sr. No. Name Film Language
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 Pankaj Tripathi Ludo Hindi
6 Rajkummar Rao Ludo Hindi
7 Suriya Soorarai Pottru Tamil
8 Neel Deshmukh Sthalpuran Marathi
BEST ACTRESS
Sr. No. Name Film Language
1 Kani Kusruti Biriyaani-Flavors of Flesh Malayalam
2 Nimisha Sajayan The Great Indian Kitchen Malayalam
3 Rasika Dugal Lootcase Hindi
4 Rima Kallingal Santhoshathinte Onnam Rahasyam Malayalam
5 Swastika Mukherjee Tasher Ghawr Bengali
6 Vidya Balan Sherni Hindi
7 Vinamrata Rai Fire in the Mountains Hindi
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Sr.
No. Name Language Director
1 A Rifle and a
Bag Gondi, Madiya, Hindi Cristina Hanes, Isabella Rinaldi
and Arya Rothe
2 Borderlands Bengali, Hindi, Nepali,
Punjabi, Other Samarth Mahajan
3 Watch Over Me Hindi, Malayalam Farida Pacha
4
W.O.M.B –
Women of My
Billion
English, Hindi, Tamil,
Telugu Ajitesh Sharma
5 Shut Up Sona English Deepti Gupta
6 About Mumma English Maanvi Chowdhary
BEST SERIES
Sr. No. Series Language
1 Bandish Bandits Hindi
2 Churails Urdu, Hindi
3 Mirzapur S 2 Hindi
4 Mismatched Hindi
5 The Family Man S 2 Hindi
BEST PERFORMANCE (MALE) – SERIES
Sr. No. Name Series
1 Manoj Bajpayee The Family Man S2
2 Ali Fazal Mirzapur S2
3 Divyenndu Mirzapur S2
4 Pankaj Tripathi Mirzapur S2
5 Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub Tandav
6 Saif Ali Khan Tandav
BEST PERFORMANCE (FEMALE) – SERIES
Sr. No. Name Series
1 Neena Gupta Masaba Masaba
2 Samantha Akkineni The Family Man S2
3 Shweta Tripathi Sharma Mirzapur S2
4 Shahana Goswami Bombay Begums
5 Prajakta Koli Mismatched
6 Rasika Dugal Mirzapur S2