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‘Jai Bhim’, ‘Minnal Murali’, ‘Badhaai Do’ top films at 13th edition of IFFM

Actors Gopal Hegde for ‘Pedro’, Rajkummar Rao for ‘Badhaai Do’, Ranveer Singh ’83’, Suriya, Tovino Thomas, Vicky Kaushal and Abhishek have been named in the Best Actor category…reports Asian Lite News

In the 13th edition of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM), films such as ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, ‘Badhaai Do’, ‘Jai Bhim’, ’83’ and ‘Minnal Murali’ and many others have been nominated in the Best Film category.

This year’s big nominees include the starring leads and filmmakers / producers of films like ‘Jai Bhim’, ‘The Rapist’, ‘Gangubai Kathiwadi’, ’83’, ‘Badhaai Do’, ‘Sardar Udham’, among others.

Indie films nominations have acclaimed films including ‘Pedro’, ‘Once Upon a Time in Calcutta’, ‘Fair Folk’ amongst others, while ‘Urf’, ‘Ayena’, ‘Ladies Only’ are some of the Best Docu nominees.

Winners of Best Film, Best Indie Film and Best Documentary each win state of the art cameras from Black Magic Design apart from the award.

Another key highlight is that the Best Film winner automatically gets a nomination nod under the Best Asian Film category at the annual prestigious AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards).

This year too those awards will be included with Best Series, Best Actor in a Series and Best Actress in a Series. In these categories, ‘Mumbai Diaries’, ‘Aranyak’, ‘Mai’ and ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein’ are leading the nominations.

Actors Gopal Hegde for ‘Pedro’, Rajkummar Rao for ‘Badhaai Do’, Ranveer Singh ’83’, Suriya, Tovino Thomas, Vicky Kaushal and Abhishek have been named in the Best Actor category.

While in the Best Actor (Female) section, names like Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone, Bhumi Pedenkar, Kokona Sen Sharma, Lijomol Jose, Shefali Shah, Sreelekha Mitra and Vidya Balan are nominated.



Pakistani film ‘Joyland’, ‘Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom’ from Bhutan, Bangladesh movies such ‘No Man’s Land’ and Rehana Maryam Noor; and Sri Lankan film ‘The Newspaper’ have made it to the Best Film From Subcontinent.

The festival, which is presented by the Victorian Government, is an annual festival that takes place in Melbourne, Australia, and showcases the best of films from India and the subcontinent. This year the festival starts August 12-20. The Awards night is all set to take place on August 14.

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2022 Oscar nominations; Kenneth Branagh breaks record, big disappointment for Jai Bhim

Kenneth Branagh, whose ‘Belfast’ is a frontrunner, had a jolly good reason to pour himself a Jameson, having ramped up his career record by reaching the pinnacle of seven nominations in as many categories in his lifetime…reports Asian Lite News

The worldwide excitement over the 94th Academy Awards (the Oscars), which will be held on March 27 at Hollywood’s iconic Dolby Theatre, acquired a frenzied pitch on Tuesday evening (early morning U.S. Pacific Time) with the live announcement on Twitter of the much-awaited nominations.

For India, the big disappointment was that the Suriya-starrer ‘Jai Bhim’, which was a hot favourite for a nomination nod, did not make the cut. Neighbouring Bhutan, though, made history when its official entry, “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”, found its way into the Best International Feature Film nominations.

Of course, in the international category, Riyosuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car”, which has been picking just about every major award announced thus far, has got the nods for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. The Japanese film is based on the globally celebrated writer Haruki Murakami’s short story.

Kenneth Branagh, whose ‘Belfast’ is a frontrunner, had a jolly good reason to pour himself a Jameson, having ramped up his career record by reaching the pinnacle of seven nominations in as many categories in his lifetime.

For diversity watchers, the big news was the presence of two Black actors in the noms for Best Actor: Will Smith for “King Richard” and Denzel Washington, the second Black man to get an Oscar in the history of the Awards, for “The Tragedy of Macbeth”.

And Jane Campion’s feminine take on the Wild West, ‘The Power of the Dog’, is in the running for all major awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Lead Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), two nods for Best Supporting Actor (Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Best Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst), among others.

Here’s the full list of the key nominations:

Best Picture: “Belfast”, “CODA”, “Don’t Look Up”, “Drive My Car”, “Dune”, “King Richard”, “Licorice Pizza”, “Nightmare Alley”, “The Power of the Dog” and “West Side Story”.

Best Director: Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) and Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”).

Best Lead Actor: Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick  Boom!”), Will Smith (“King Richard”) and Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”).

Best Lead Actress: Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Pen�lope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) and Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”).

Best Supporting Actor: Ciarïn Hinds (“Belfast”), Troy Kotsur (“CODA”), Jesse Plemons (“The Power of the Dog”), J.K. Simmons (“Being the Ricardos”) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”).

Best Supporting Actress: Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”), Judy Dench (“Belfast”), Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”) and Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”).

Best International Feature Film: “Drive My Car” (Japan), “Flee” (Denmark), “The Hand of God” (Italy), “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” (Bhutan) and “The Worst Person in the World” (Norway).

This year’s Oscars will be an in-person event and will have a host for the first time after three years.

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‘Jai Bhim’ wins three awards at Noida film fest

He tweeted that ‘Jai Bhim’ had won the Best Film, Best Actor for Suriya and Best Actress award for Lijomol Jose at the Noida International Film Festival 2022!…reports Asian Lite News

Director Tha Se Gnanavel’s critically acclaimed courtroom drama, ‘Jai Bhim’, featuring actors Suriya, Lijomol Jose and Manikandan in the lead, has won three awards at the Ninth Noida International Film festival, 2022.

The film fetched Suriya the Best Actor award and Lijomol Jose, the award for Best Actress. It also took home the award for Best Film. On Monday, Rajsekar Karpoorasundarapandian, the CEO of 2D Entertainment, the production house that produced the film, announced the news on twitter.

He tweeted that ‘Jai Bhim’ had won the Best Film, Best Actor for Suriya and Best Actress award for Lijomol Jose at the Noida International Film Festival 2022!

The film, which tells the moving story of an upright lawyer coming to the aid of poor, defenseless people from the Irular community who have no means to stand up to the might of an inhuman police force that seeks to exploit their helplessness and commits atrocity after atrocity on them with impunity, has been winning widespread acclaim ever since it released.

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Bhim, Marakkar nominated for Best Feature Film at Oscars 2022

Directed by Priyadarshan, ‘Marakkar’ is one of the most expensive films in the history of Malayalam cinema…reports Asian Lite News

Two Indian films — the controversial Tamil film ‘Jai Bhim’ starring Suriya and Lijomol Jose and Priyadarshan’s Malayalam period drama ‘Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham’ (Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea), with Mohanlal playing the titular character — are on the list of 276 movies eligible for this year’s Academy Awards.

The voting for the Oscar nominations is set to begin on Thursday, January 27, and it will continue until Tuesday, February 1. The announcement limits the eligibility year to 10 months. Last year, the Academy had extended it until February 28, 2021, because of the pandemic.

All of the presumed Oscar contenders, reports ‘Variety’, are on the list. These include ‘Being the Ricardos’ (Amazon Studios), ‘Belfast’ (Focus Features), ‘CODA’ (Apple Original Films), ‘Dune’ (Warner Bros), ‘Encanto’ (Walt Disney Pictures), ‘House of Gucci’ (MGM/United Artists), ‘The Power of the Dog’ (Netflix), ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ (Paramount Pictures), ‘Spencer’ (Neon/Topic Studios), ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (Sony Pictures) and ‘West Side Story’ (20th Century Studios).

Some of the international features from the Oscar shortlist are also eligible for best picture, in addition to the best international feature category, such as Japan’s much-awarded ‘Drive My Car’, Italy’s ‘The Hand of God’, Iran’s ‘A Hero’ and Norway’s ‘The Worst Person in the World’.

Directed by Priyadarshan, ‘Marakkar’ is one of the most expensive films in the history of Malayalam cinema. It narrates the epic tale of Kunjali Marakkar IV, a Malabar Sea lord and his epic battles against the Portuguese. The movie had won three National Awards — Best Feature Film, Best Special Effects and Best Costume Design.

‘Jai Bhim’, which raised the hackles of the PMK, a political party in Tamil Nadu that represents mainly the Vanniyar community, is based on a true incident in 1993, involving a case fought by former Madras High Court Justice K. Chandru, when he was an advocate. Behind him in this legal battle was Sengeni’s wife, Rajakannu.

The only other film to make the cut from South Asia is Bhutan’s ‘Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom’, a 2019 film directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji. It had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.

The film was selected as the Bhutanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, but later disqualified. It was resubmitted as Bhutan’s entry for the 2022 Oscars and was shortlisted for the awards.

Nominations for the 94th Academy Awards, according to ‘Variety’, will be announced on Tuesday, February 8. The ceremony is scheduled to be held on Sunday, March 27, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and will be televised on the American network ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

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