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

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) announced on Friday, August 20, its grand winners for its 12^thedition, 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, Onir was also 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 picks 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, says, “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 link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gZhyyotMlm4AqBipkc4bhpzPEbOfxAmF?usp=sharing
Here’s a complete list of winners: 
IFFM Short Film Competition (India) MIXI (CHAKKI) | Directed byJyotsna 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