20th CIFF: VJS bags Best Actor award, Kida for Best Feature film

CHENNAI: The 20th Chennai International Film Festival took place at a mutiplex in the city from December 15 till December 22. A total of 120 films were screened in this year’s festival.

The festival opened with Denmark film Triangle of Sadness and closed with the Iranian film No Bears.

As for this year's special, German film AEIYU had a special screening for women.

The closing event for the festival began with a dance performance by Avichi college students followed by a vote of thanks by the CIFF fraternities.

Notable Tamil films like Iravin Nizhal, Kasada Thapara, Aadhaar, Gargi, Kida, Maamanithan, O2, Irudhi Pakkam, Beginning, Yuddha Kaandam and Natchathiram Nagargiradhu participated under the Tamil Film Festival Competition.

The award ceremony began after the dance performance following which Ramnath's Aadhaar bagged Special Mention Certificate Award and the Best Audiographer Award bagged by Anthony BJ Ruben for Natchathiram Nagargiradhu.

The Best Editing Award was bagged by CS Premkumar for the film Beginning. Best Cinematographer Award was bagged by Arthur A Wilson for Iravin Nizhal and the Best Actress Award was bagged by Sai Pallavi for Gargi.

Actors Vijay Sethupathi and late actor 'Poo' Ramu shared the award for Best Actor in the lead role for Seenu Ramasamy's Maamanithan and Ra Venkat's Kida.

Special Jury Award was bagged by actor-filmmaker R Parthiban for Iravin Nizhal and the Second Best Film Award was bagged by Chimbudevan's Kasada Tabara.

Acclaimed filmmaker Venkat Prabhu, who produced Chimbudevan's Kasada Tabara under his production banner 'Black Ticket Company' says that he is very happy about his film bagging the award. "Very happy that our film has bagged the award. We never expected it. The award has been given for the film only for its concept and that's because of Director Chimbudevan's clear vision. As a producer, I tried to do whatever I could. Trident Arts' R Ravindran, who presented the film has an equal contribution because he believed in us, invested and released the film. We tried to do a theatrical release, but due to Covid it was not an option. This film was crafted for the theatres because the film's ratio changes rapidly and I really wanted to see the film in the festival, but missed it. I thank the CIFF jury members and the management for recognising my film. The recognition is big for us and I am very happy to get an award for this as a producer"

Apart from Kasada Thabara, Ra Venkat's Kida also bagged Best Feature Film award.

Debutant music director of the film, Theeson, talks about working in Kida, after receiving the award. "This is my debut film. When Kida was screened at Goa, it got good feedback there. As a composer, I did a lot of short films which received a lot of awards. On the line-up, this film feels special. Working on commercial projects is different, but I really feel proud to work on such a low-budget artsy film."

The Chief guest for the event was Veteran actor-filmmaker K Bhagyaraj.

(With inputs from Harjinder Singh)