What's New - Festival Highs

MAMI 2018 – India’s Glories Galore

by Mignonne D’souza

05-November-2018

Wrapping up eight days of houseful theatres and sought-after screenings, the 20th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star applauded its award-winners with due pizzazz. The closing ceremony on November 1 at JW Marriott celebrated films of quality and encouraged relevant and related dialogue.

Bagging the top honour in the India Gold competition, the Golden Gateway Award second year in a row, was Rima Das with her third feature film 'Bulbul Can Sing'.  The coming-of-age drama set in rural Assam presents a gentle yet fervent tale of adolescent love and identity, with strong performances and candid understanding. The film reflected the current focus on the subjugation of women. Last year, Das' 'Village Rockstars’ won three awards at the festival and is now India’s official entry to the 2019 Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film.


The cast and crew of 'Bulbul Can Sing' at the closing ceremony

Jointly winning the Silver Gateway Award in this section were Ridham Janve’s Pahari-language film 'The Gold Laden Sheep and the Sacred Mountain' and Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s 'Jonaki'. While the former is an ethnographic sci-fi film on a shepherd's search for a lost plane in the mystic mountains of Dhauladhar region, the latter presents an intense, heartwarming ode to the director’s grandmother in her last days. What the tied winners have in common is their alma mater National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, as well as that both films are inspired by true events. ‘Jonaki’ also won a Special Mention for the Oxfam Best Film on Gender Equality Award.


Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, Jonaki Bhattacharya, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Jim Sarbh and Samir Sarkar; the cast and crew of 'Jonaki'

The Grand Jury Prize in this section went to Kabir Chowdhry's ‘Mehsampur’, the meta-narrative in which a filmmaker travels to Punjab to make a movie on singer Amar Singh Chamkila. The India Gold jurors, Lucrecia Martel, Martin Sulik, Soudade Kaadan presented the awards (the fourth member, artist Subodh Gupta, was not present).

Presenting a fresh outlook to the city every year, the Dimensions Mumbai short film category lauded young filmmakers on their unique snapshots of culture. The Golden Gateway Award went to the MAMI regular Karan Asnani's ‘Sheher Ya Tum’ (The City or You), following his two shorts which previously screened at the festival. The film is a poetic tale of choice, between the city which has given him all as well the love of his life. Nishtha Sadwelkar’s five-minute docu-short ‘Yadav Ji’ bagged the Silvery Gateway Award and Gilroy Rodrigues' ‘Metaphor’ received a Special Mention for its simplistic take on the world’s imperfections. Presenting the awards were Bejoy Nambiar, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Shirley Abraham and Renuka Shahane, who comprised the jury for Dimensions Mumbai headed by Rajkumar Hirani (who also could not be present).


Karan Asnani with his actors, Yahya Bootwala and Jidnya Sujata, at the closing ceremony

The Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality went to Ivan Ayar's ‘Soni’ starring Geetika Vidya Ohlyan and Saloni Batra, both present to receive the award along with the director. Based on the lives of two Delhi policewomen fighting the growing crisis of crimes against women, the film is a realistic portrait of the city’s police force and its complications. The Special Mention in this category went to Vasanth S Sai’s ‘Sivaranjani and Two Other Women’ and Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s ‘Jonaki’. The jury for this award was headed by Rima Das and comprised of filmmaker Anjali Menon and Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of Doha Film Institute.  Menon and Das presented the awards. 

The award for the Best Large Short Film went to the budding filmmaker Pranav Bhasin for his film ‘New Year's Eve’, his second win at MAMI after last year’s Silver Gateway Award for his short ‘Wolf of Chawl Street’.

The Young Critics Choice Award went to Aadish Keluskar’s ‘Jaaon Kahan Bata Ae Dil’ whose previous film ‘Kaul’ won the same award at MAMI 2014.

In the children’s special Half Ticket section, Priya Ramasubban's ‘Chuskit’ received the Golden Gateway for Best Feature (5-9 years).

The special reward in the select Discovering India section went to Ann S Kim and Priya Giri Desai’s ‘Lovesick’, in the form of two Turkish Airline international business class tickets.

MAMI’s Tribute commemorated the illustrious life and career of Sridevi, which filmmaker Gauri Shinde (‘English Vinglish’) in a voice touched with deep emotion, announced in honour of her favourite actor.

Other Awards

International Competition
Golden Gateway Award - Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s ‘Manta Ray’
Silver Gateway Award - Marcelo Martinessi’s ‘The Heiresses’ 
Grand Jury Prize - Gabrielle Brady’s ‘The Island of Hungry Ghosts’
Special Jury Mention - Alireza Motamedi’s ‘Reza’

Half Ticket
Golden Gateway for Best Feature (9+ years) - Denis Do's ‘Funan’
Golden Gateway for Best Short Film (5-9 years) - Astrid Bussink’s ‘Listen’
Golden Gateway for Best Short Film (9+ years) - Maribeth Romslo and Cristina Pippa’s ‘Amelia’

MAMI Excellence in Cinema (International) - American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky