Up Down and Sideways, An Engineered Dream and Mind of a Tea Vendor were among the winners at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala that was held in Thiruvananthapuram between July 20 and July 24. The festival, organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, announced the awards on Tuesday evening.
Up Down and Sideways, directed by Anushka Meenakshi and Iswar Srikumar, won the award for the best long documentary. The film explores the oral folk music tradition that accompanies the cultivation of rice in Nagaland. The second award in the long documentary category went to Hemant Gaba’s An Engineered Dream, which looks at the coaching class industry that has sprung up in the Rajasthani city Kota.
Mind of a Tea Vendor by Sanu Kummil won top honours in the short documentary category. The film looks at the effects of demonetisation on a tea seller.
The second award in this category went to Jamnapaar, in which Abhinava Bhattacharyya examines the effects of environmental degradation on the people who live on the river’s banks.
The Navroze Contractor award for Best Cinematographer went to Venu PS for The Loss of Western Ghats. Biju Pankaj’s film looks at the effects of deforestation on the lion tail macaque species.
In the fiction category, the top prize went to Sound Proof. Aditya Kelgaonkar’s film chronicles the strange experiences of a divorced woman who rents an apartment in Mumbai.
The second prize in the category went to Kunjila Mascillamani’s Gi, about the relationship between an elderly man and his granddaughter.
The Best Campus Film award was shared by Shankar G’s Preparation, produced by LV Prasad Film & TV Academy, and Gokul R Nadh’s Ida, produced by KR Narayanan Institute of Visual Science and Arts. In Preparation, a caregiver for a seriously ailing patient has to make a tough choice. In Ida, a girl in a village stumbles upon a mysterious box.
The jury for the fiction awards comprised Kavitha Lankesh, Amir Masoud Soheili and Mahesh Narayanan. The jury for the non-fiction awards was made up of Raed Andoni, Paromita Vohra and Amudhan RP.