Manipuri documentary film “Phum Shang” has won the Golden Conch Award for the Best Documentary Film (upto 60 minutes) at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Animation and Short Films, MIFF 2016, which ended today. Swiss film “My Name is Salt” and Indian entry “Placebo” shared the Gold Conch award for the Best Feature length Documentary Film.
52 miniute documentary “Phum Shang”, directed by Hao Bam Pabankumar an alumnus of the Satyjit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkatta, critically examines the serious environmental problems faced at the Loktak lake. The largest fresh water lake in North East India characterized by its unique floating biomass, known as ‘Phumdi’, is today considered a dying lake due to unchecked human activity. Pabankumar wins the Golden Conch Award and a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakhs.
“My name is salt” directed by Mumbai born, Zurich based Farida Pacha is a film about the journey of thousands of families to the Rann of Kutch to extract whitest salt in the world. Chandigarh based film maker Abhay Kumar’s 96 minutes film “Placebo” explores the stress and pressure faced by medical students.
‘My Name Is Salt’ also won the Best Cinematographer award for Lutz Konermann, while Placebo won the Award for Best Editor. Placebo was also declared the Most Innovative Film in the competition section.
Debanjan Nandy’s animation film ‘Chhaya’ bagged the first prize in the Animation Category of International Competition.
Mumbai filmmaker Devashish Makhija’s ‘Agli Baar’ shared the Best Short Fiction Film honours with the UK entry ‘Solo Finale’ by Ingo Putze.
Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the Best Debut Film of a Director went to ‘Far From Home’ by Copenhagen, Denmark based film maker Nitesh Anjan.
The International Jury for the Festival comprised prominent documentary makers Don Askarian from Germany, Jesper Andersen from Denmark, Mathiue Roy of Canada, Siddharth Kak and Gitanjali Rao. Mike Pandey, Uma DaCunha, Biju Dhanapalan, Audrius Stonys (Lithuania) and Jane Yu (Taiwan) are the members of the National Jury.
MIFF 2016 showcased over 385 films under International and National competition, MIFF Prism, Indian Premiers, Jury retrospectives, Animation and award winning films , Children’s documentary films, North East package, FD and PSBT (Public Service Broadcasting Trust) films, homages etc.