The spectacular seventh edition of the Jagran Film Festival, India’s only largest travelling cinema gala, concluded on a high note on October 2, 2016. The Closing night of the coveted festival saw a heady mix of talent and glamour in attendance. The finale event was decorated by the presence of several Bollywood celebrities.

The World Panorama section showcasing international films for the week-long festival ended with Persian movie ‘Farewell Analog’, Romanian movie ‘Discordia’, Spanish movie ‘The Gun’, Russian movie ‘The Last Night’, Romanian movie ‘Sierranevada’, the Chinese film, ‘The Swinging Days’ and the closing film of the festival ‘Al Massira, The Green March’.

The ‘Indian Showcase’ section featured Raja Bundela’s Alex Hindustani, Anu Menon’s Waiting, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s Nil Battey Sannata, Mudassar Aziz’s family entertainer, Happy Bhag Jayegi, Bengali movie by debutant Indrasis Acharya, Bilu Rakkhosh and Syed Ahmed Afzal’s Laal Rang.

The Retros/Tributes section concluded with V Shantaram’s Do Aankhen Baarah Haath, the Iraqi film ‘Dana Dana’ and the Syrian feature World Cup, Bobby Bedi’s documentary film on Raj Kapoor, ‘Kehta Hai Joker’ and the showman’s classic, Awara.

The Workshops at the Festival included ‘Writing For Screen’ by Anjum Rajabali, renowned screen writer and Head, Academics, Whistling Woods International. In Conversation by Sucharita with singer KK provided insights to budding musicians and singers.

Mayank Shekhar’s conversation with director Ram Madhwani was equally an exhilarating one, followed by Ajay Bhramatmaj’s ‘Cutting It Right – Editor’s Speak’.

The Awards night of the festival that was held on September 30 saw renowned personalities of the Hindi film industry like Sukhwinder Singh, Aanand L. Rai, Surveen Chawla, Swara Bhaskar, Elena Fernandes, singer hriday Gattani and Aswini Iyer Tiwari gather to witness members of the film fraternity getting acknowledged and applauded for their cinematic achievements.

Veteran actor Prem Chopra was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award while Cinema Of The Sellers Gold Award was won by SapientNitro – Salute To Fauza Singh, Ogilvy & Mather – Beauty Tips by Reshma and Titan Raga.

Manoj Bajpayee and Randeep Honda won the award for Best Actor (Male) for their stupendous performances in Aligarh and Sarbjit respectively. Swara Bhaskar bagged the Best Actor (Female) award for Nil Battey Sannata.

Jai Prakash Radhakrishnan was adjudged the Best Director for his film Lens. Nagraj Manjule’s Sairat was declared Best Feature Film. Special Jury Award – Feature Film for Pahadralua was bagged by Sabyasachi Mahapatra.

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari was honoured as the Best Debut Director for her maiden attempt in the internationally acclaimed Indian film Nil Battey Sannata. Award for Best Screenplay was taken home by Vishal Bhardwaj and Aditya Nimbalkar for Talvar. A Sreekar Prasad won the award for Best Editing also for Talvar. Santosh Narayanan won laurels for Best Background Score for Irudhi Suttru. Best Sound (Re-recordist) was bagged by Alok Dey for Neerja.

Satya Nagpaul’s brilliance behind the camera in Aligarh bagged him the Best Cinematography Award. Dheekshita Venkadeshan won the Best Singer Female Award for her melodious renditions in Irudhi Suttru and singing icon Sonu Nigam’s musical notes in Sarbjit bagged him the Best Singer Male Award.