The London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) has finally concluded after running for over two weeks across four cities of London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. Filmmakers Aparna Sen and Nandita Das were awarded the Icon Award this year for their contribution to Indian and global cinema.
Aparna Sen, whose latest ‘The Rapist’ was among this year’s European premiere highlights at the festival, said, “It was a rare honour and pleasure to receive the Icon Award from LIFF. Making films on my own terms without commercial compromise for 40 years has often seemed a thankless job, but now, after the Icon Award, I feel vindicated. Thank you LIFF for continuing to believe in meaningful cinema.”
Meanwhile, Nandita said, “I have seen LIFF grow from strength to strength and I am touched by their appreciation of my choices and my work. It means a lot to me.”
Pan Nalin’s Gujarati movie ‘Chhello Show’ won this year’s audience-voted Best Film Award. Nalin said, “This is truly inspiring, uplifting, and enlightening. As a filmmaker, the only dream I cherish is to be loved by the audience.”
In the annual Satyajit Ray short film category ‘Jaagran’, co-directed by Ritviq Joshi and Hardik Sadhwani, won the LIFF Jury Prize. “Today, after getting the honour of receiving an award with Satyajit Ray’s name on it, we’re back to square one. We’re back in a dream. Only this time, it’s not limited to the two of us. This one belongs to 20 more dreamers,” they said.
The awards also included an Outstanding Achievement Award for Taapsee Pannu for her hard-hitting roles, including in the new Anurag Kashyap film ‘Dobaaraa’ which opened the festival.
