Kathmandu, March 25
Crawling Crows – Aankha grabbed the ‘Best National Feature Film’ at the 8th Nepal International Film Festival. The film was awarded with a cash prize of Rs. 100,000 along with a trophy.
Similarly, ‘Shambala’, directed by Min Bahadur Bam, won the Gautam Buddha Award for the Best Narrative Feature Film.
Director Bam dedicated the award to the cast and crew of Shambala in his brief speech after getting the award.
Minister of Communication and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung chaired the event.
Likewise, the Best Actor in a leading role (Female) was awarded to Anjana Baraili for Pujar Sarki. The Best Actor in a leading role (Male) was awarded to RK Mehta.
Best Director in Feature Film Competition was presented to Dinesh Raut for Pujar Sarki, and Best International Screenwriter was awarded to Zaun Yonzan for Crawling Crows – Aankha.
Rajesh Shrestha bagged the Best Cinematographer under the national film category for the film ‘Pujar Sarki’.
In the concluding ceremony, Director Nishan Khatri bagged the award for the Best Director for his movie ‘A Witness’.
Nirajan Raj Bhetwal directed movie ‘The Witness Tree’ grabbed the Best Short Film and Audience’s Choice awards for Best Short Film.
Devi by Subina Shrestha won the Best Documentary Award.
Among the Audience’s Choice Award category, Best Feature Film was awarded to ‘Satidevi’ by Laxman Subedi, and Best Documentary Film was awarded to ‘Girls rewriting destiny’ by Lawa Pyakurel.
Bagmati Award for the Best International Short Film was presented to Spanish film director Lucía G. Romero. Bagmati Award is accompanied by a cash prize of USD 500 and a trophy.
The Mt Everest Award for the Best International Documentary Film was given to Melting Snow directed by Mojtaba Bahadori from Belgium. Bahadori received a cash prize of USD 1,000 and a trophy.
The Abyss from Argentina was honoured with the Manjushree Award for Best AI film,which included a cash prize of USD 500 and a trophy.
Indian movie Rukmini, directed by Nilay Prashant Raje, won the International Federation of Film Society – Don Quixote Award for the Best Feature Film.
With this, the five-day film festival concluded.
Organized by the Nepal Film and Cultural Academy, the 8th NIFF featured 87 films from 40 countries.
