"Paltadacho Munis"wins best film award at Los Angeles
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 27 April 2010 13:26 IST
Main actor Chitranjan Giri & director Laxmikant Shetgaonkar
"Paltadacho Munis” (The Man Beyond the Bridge), a Konkani film directed by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar, won yet another grand jury award at the 8th annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.
The Konkani film was chosen to be the Best Narrative Feature from among several Indian and other films.
Dilip Mehta's "Cooking with Stella," the opening film of the festival, won the award of Honourable Mention.
Similarly, Nishta Jain's "At My Doorstep" was chosen for the Best Documentary award, with a Honourable Mention of Deepa Bhatia's "Nero's Guests".
Ritesh Batra's "Gareeb Nawaz's Taxi" won the Best Short Film award with Honourable Mention of Anjoo Khosla's "Wahid Mobile Bookstore."
The Audience choice awards went to "Harishchandrachi Factory," "The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom" and "Kunjo."
The festival hosted over 7000 delegates from 20 to 25 April at the Arclight Hollywood.
The jury comprised of producer Debra Martin Chase ("Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants"), and thesps Shannyn Sossamon ("A Knight's Tale") and Radha Mitchell ("Melinda and Melinda") who also stars in and co-produced this year's closing night film "The Waiting City."
The festival also screened in the feature category famous Bollywood films like "3 Idiots", "My Name is Khan", "Kaminey", "Fatso", "Ashes to Ashes" etc.
IFFLA executive director Christina Marouda told Daily Variety: "This has been an incredible festival, bringing together the two largest film industries in the world, Hollywood and Bollywood. We are here to create a portal between the two industries and bridge the gap."
"Paltadacho Munis" (The Man beyond the Bridge) has been listed as one of the 101 best films of the world to have released in 2009 in the 'Films 101' database, along with the likes of James Cameron's "Avatar", and Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds".
It also became the first-ever Konkani film to have won an award - International Film Critics Federation (FIPRESCI) prize for Discovery - at the Toronto international film festival last year.
The film was also listed in the competition sections at other prestigious international film festivals in Mumbai, Pune, Palm Springs (USA), Cairo and Hong Kong.
It was an opening film in Indian Panorama section at IFFI 2009.
hats off Mr. Laximikant you made us proud, and brought konkani cenema on the world screen.
Congratulations Mr. Laximikant Shetgaonkar
Kudos to your effort to bring Goa in forefront and I wish you all the best for all your future projects keep up the good work we are proud of you keep the torch burning.
indian cinema is at its peak. an award in hollywood is feather in cap of every indian. kudos
Congratulation !! brother................I am proud of you............great work and my best wishes to you for your future projects
Yes, Mr. Shetgaonkar has made us proud ,
people of Goa are grateful to you and wish you all the best for your future work.
Congratulations! Mr Shetgaonkar you have shown the world that Goans can be what no one thinks they are. I really congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. This proves that Goa and Goans can go far and wide in all aspects. The sons of Goa need support and help from the Government of Goa to come up. The sapling will and should grow into a tree. – Menino (Valpoi)
Hearty Congratulations to Mr. Laxmikant Shtgaunkar. Keep GOA's Flag at a new hight always.
Goan telents are shining in film industry.
Mr. Laxmikant Shetgaonkar has made all Goans proud by the film he has produced! He needs all encouragement and financial assistance from the Govt, so that more and more of quality films are produced by him! The Govt can easily cut down lakhs of rupees it spends to unnecessarily organize functions to felicitate and give away prizes to political workers under the name of artists who have hardly acted in some village dramas in the zatras/festivals and the money so saved will be definitely better utilized to help some one deserving like Mr. Laxmikant Shetgaonkar!
Congrats Mr Laximikant for hailing the banner of Konkani cinema to world heights.We are proud of you and you made us proud.