‘Embrace of the Serpent’ wins Golden Peacock at 46th IFFI
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 30 November 2015 20:15 IST
Internationally co-produced adventure drama film ‘Embrace of the Serpent’ (Al Abrazo de la Serpiente) bagged the Golden Peacock for the Best Film at the 46th IFFI with a prize money of Rs 40 lakh.
India’s renowned filmmaker and head of the jury Shekhar Kapoor announced the prize for the film, which depicts the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and eventually life transcending friendship between Amazonian shaman Karamakate and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
While curtains came down on the 46th International Film Festival of India in Goa today, the Best Director award went to Peter Greenaway, a British film director, for the film ‘Eisenstein in Guanajuato’ with prize money of Rs 15 lakh.
The juries also selected this year five female actors in a movie together for the Best Actor (Female) as Shekhar said “it was impossible to separate them from each other and judge.’
The juries this year also announced a Special Mention Award for a film as it was difficult, said Shekhar, to keep a good film out.
The awards are as follows:
Best Actor (Male): Vincent Lindon for a French film ‘The Measure of a Man’.
Best Actor (Female): Gunes Sensoy, Doga Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscanand Ilyada Akdogan, the five actors for a Turkish fim ‘Mustang’.
Special Jury Award: A Spanish film ‘Sealed Cargo’ (Carga Sellada), directed by Julia Vargas.
Special Mention Award: Serbian film ‘Enclave’ directed by Goran Radovanovic.
The International Jury of IFFI 2015, headed by Kapur, were UK-based director Micheal Radford, Palestinian-based Israel director, German actress Suha Arraf, Julia Jentsch and South Korean filmmaker Jeon Kyu-Hwan.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Russian film maker, actor and head of Russian Cinematographers’ Union Nikita Mikhalkov was conferred upon the Lifetime Achievement Award.
He was felicitated at the hands of India’s ace music maestro A R Rehman.
“Cinema is a shrine of unity and I hope the film world makes more and more humanitarian movies that would unite the whole world through international film festivals”, said Rehman.
IFFI this year had a special tribute section of Mikhalkov’s films, screening his masterpieces – ‘Sunstroke’, ‘the Barber of Siberia’ and ‘Burnt by the Sun’.
ICFT – UNESCO FELLINI MEDAL
The ICFT – UNESCO Fellini Medal was awarded to Kaushik Ganguly’s ‘Cinemawala’ that focuses on the sad state of single screen cinema halls in West Bengal.
This medal, given to a film that reflects the socio-cultural ideals promoted by UNESCO, has been introduced for the first time at IFFI.
