Besides the best film, the other award are the Akhil Bharatiya Chitrapat Mahamandal, which gives away the following awards – Best Film Director, Best Film Actor male, Best Film Actor female, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematographer.

As the curtain closes on the last screening of the Marathi competition films at the 16th Pune International Film Festival 2018, the buzz word for the closing on Thursday is who will win the most coveted Sant Tukaram Award for the Best International Marathi Film (Rs.5 lakh) instituted by the Government of Maharashtra.

“One of the most important objectives of PIFF is to give regional and indigenous cinema a global platform. With this in mind, seven of the best Marathi films released this year for the Marathi competition,” said Jabbar Patel, director PIFF. This is the only festival where an international jury awards Marathi films. These films represent contemporary thought, culture and society in Maharashtra. They bring to fore young talent and experimental forms of film making in the state,” he added.

Besides the best film, the other award are the Akhil Bharatiya Chitrapat Mahamandal, which gives away the following awards – Best Film Director (Rs.25,000), Best Film Actor male (Rs.25,000), Best Film Actor female (Rs.25,000), Best Screenplay (Rs.25,000) and Best Cinematographer (Rs.25,000).

Vying for the title are five debut film directors, who feel that being part of such a film festival helps boost and encourage them. Aditya Sarpotdar, who was a volunteer at PIFF, said, “Film festivals help promote Marathi cinema, it helps us strive to create better content. Commercially, it doesn’t help us but it sets a benchmark for creating better content for a competition. Film festivals help promoting films with good sensibility.”

“PIFF helped me enrich my education and also opened my mind to watch and learn from international cinema,” he added.

Amit Vasant Gole directed his first film ‘Nashibvan’ which got selected for PIFF. He felt that PIFF gave him an edge to work on good content. “I have worked mostly as a cameraman with Sumitra Bhave, Prasad NamJoshi and it is at PIFF that I have grown up. PIFF has brought home awards for my camera work and now it is indeed my luck that my first film is in competition here. Film festivals definitely help new filmmakers like me since you learn a lot by discussing films with the film makers post screening, or understanding a film or its critical assessment from a critic, all these things take place only in a film festival,” he said.

Director Gajendra Ahire, too, understands the value of a film festival. Download endnote x7 free trial. Play all bhajans. “I worked as a volunteer and the value of a film festival doubles up two fold when as a new film maker your film is honoured and appreciated by the audience. Also once the film is appreciated by an audience at the film festival then the quality of your film is already judged and is placed high to be compared with other global films thus creating a brand and also getting international exposure for a film maker to grow and mature,” he said.

First Published: Jan 18, 2018 15:40 IST

in All Videos sorted by relevance