MAMI- And the curtains come down

A week of marathon film-watching and shuttling between multiple venues drew to an end with the 2012 MFF’s closing ceremony at NCPA last evening. We’re still hungover on quality cinema, with this year’s selection of films being a mélange of the best of directors and festival winners from around the world, promising newcomers and a rather interesting sneak peek of what looks to be the beginning of a new chapter in Indian Cinema.

Films on religion, faith and love ruled supreme. If the big winners this season are anything to go by, it seems the stalwarts are reinventing themselves, with Kiorastami’s Like Someone in Love, Bertolucci’s Me and You, Kitano’s Outrage Beyond, Gondry’s The We and the I, Salles’s On the Road and Cronnenberg’s Cosmopolis drawing mixed reactions from the crowd. Haneke’s Amour, Loach’s The Angel’s Share, Makhmalbaf’s The Gardener and Vinterberg’s The Hunt retained their fantastic genius, while first time directors like Benh Zeitlin’s The Beasts of the Southern Wild and Rebecca Thomas’s Electrick Children were a great watch.

MAMI- And the curtains come down

The results are out. Here are the films that ruled MFF 2012.

International Competition for the First Feature Films of Directors

Best Film (Golden Gateway of India Award): Aquí Y Alla (Here and There)

Jury Grand Prize of the Silver Gateway of India Award: Beasts of The Southern Wild.

Silver Gateway Award for Best Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza for Aquí Y Alla´ (Here And There)

Silver Gateway Of India Award for Best Actor: Dwight Henry for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Actress: Julia Garner for Electrick Children

Jury Award of Technical Excellence: Pankaj Kumar for Ship Of Theseus.

Special Jury Award: Musa Syed for Valley Of Saints.

 

‘India Gold’ (Competition section for Indian feature films)

Best Film (Golden Gateway of India Trophy): Miss Lovely

Runner’s up to Best Film (Silver Gateway trophy):  Shahid

Special Jury Award of a Silver Gateway of India trophy: Manjeet Singh for Mumbai Cha Raja.

The Reliance Media Works CreaTech (Creativity & Technology) Award was bestowed upon the makers of Miss Lovely, who will be entitled to utilize the resources Reliance Media Works Service Solutions for a value up to Rs.1 lakh.

 

Celebrate Age:

Best Film: Night Boats (Nocni brodovi) by Igor Mirkovic

Runners-Up to the Best Film: The Delay (La Demora) by Rodrigo Pla

Special Mention by Jury: Ping Pong by Hugh Hartford

 

Dimensions Mumbai: (Short film competition for filmmakers below the age of 25 years depicting aspects of life in the city)

Best Film: Local by Bharat Singh Pawar

Runners Up to the Best Film: Aakhon Dekha Haal by Sudhanshu Prakash Sawant

Special Mention by the Jury: Bombay Kulfi by Vaibhav Hiwase and Karwaa by Errol Peter Marks and Aaditya Sawant

 

And while we’re already prepping up for the International Film Festival of India to be held in Goa next month, here’s some food for thought.

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5 things not to say when at a film festival

#5: Oh no, not subtitles again.

#4: Have you even heard of the country where this film’s from?

#3: Why is this film so slow?

#2: I have never heard of this director before. Is he any good?

#1: Relax, it’s just a film.

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