NEW DELHI: The curtains came down on the 46th International Film Festival of India in Goa with internationally co-produced Spanish adventure drama film ‘Embrace of the Serpent’ directed by Ciro Guerra bagging the Golden Peacock for best milm. The film also won a citation with prize money of Rs 40 lakh to be shared between the Director and the Producer.

The Special Jury Award also went to a Spanish film - ‘Sealed Cargo’ directed by Julia Vargas.  The Special Jury Award carries a Silver Peacock, citation and a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh. The Serbian film ‘Enclave’ directed by Goran Radovanovic got the special mention award. Spain was the focus country at the annual festival this year.

At a colourful event showcasing a cultural performance and some eminent personalities at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee indoor stadium, the awards were presented by Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, and Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. The chief guest of the function was the internationally acclaimed music maestro A R Rahman.

The best director award went to British filmmaker Peter Greenaway for the film ‘Eisenstein in Guanajuato’ which is based on the real-life story of eminent Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. The best director was presented with a Silver Peacock, a citation and a prize money of Rs 15 lakh.

The best Actor (male) went to Vincent Lindon for his portrayal of a laid off factory worker Thierry Taogourdeau in the French film ‘The Measure of a Man’ while the best Actor (female) award was shared by Gunes Sensoy, Doga Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan and Ilyada Akdogan for portrayal of the roles of five young orphaned sisters in the Turkish film ‘Mustang’. The best Actor – male and female were awarded the Silver Peacock, citation and prize money of Rs One Rs 1 million.

Russian film maker, actor and head of Russian Cinematographers’ Union Nikita Mikhalkov was conferred upon the Lifetime Achievement Award while the first-time instituted International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT) – UNESCO Fellini Medal was awarded to Kaushik Ganguly’s ‘Cinemawala’ since it highlights some of the socio-cultural values that UNESCO stands for, as the film was about the depleting state of cinema houses in West Bengal. 

The Centenary Film Personality Award was conferred on internationally acclaimed music composer Illayaraja.

The International Jury of IFFI 2015 headed by internationally acclaimed Indian film maker Shekhar Kapur, comprised UK based director, Micheal Radford, Palestinian based Israel director, Ms. Suha Arraf, German Actress, Julia Jentsch and South Korean filmmaker Jeon Kyu-Hwan.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Rathore said that while seeing a film could be an escape, it was also a source of inspiration, since it remained with the viewers long after they had seen it and they carried it into their real lives by becoming a part of the film. A film therefore has to espouse good values.

Rathore said IFFI provided a unique platform for confluence of ideas and stories from across the world and helped to learn from each other. This helped in better realization of the commonality of the joys and sorrows that transcended all kinds of distinctions and boundaries.

Elaborating on the new media initiatives this year, Rathore said that the festival reached out to the larger audience through various initiatives like Live Streaming of Press Conferences, Festival Mobile App, Talkathons for disseminating the information and content of the festival. He said there was also a special section on National Film Heritage Mission at IFFI 2015 which showcased his Ministry’s efforts to restore and digitize films and archive film material. He said that out of a total of 1300 films, 375 films had already been digitized and preserved.

Rahman said cinema helped us understand culture and commonality of consciousness of people across the world.

Parsekar said IFFI had further enhanced the image of Goa as world class filming destination. The festival had also inculcated the film culture in Goa. He said IFFI 2015 showcased excellent cinema with participation from eminent national and international film personalities.

 I and B Secretary Sunil Arora speaking on the occasion said that people in the film industry had stood the test of time and became the iconic figures in India and abroad.

The Festival closed with the screening of the Argentinian film ‘The Clan’. It had opened with the film ‘The man who knew eternity’ on 20 November. The mid-Fest film was ‘The Danish Girl’.

A total of 182 films from ninety countries besides India were shown in the Festival which had a record number of 7000 delegates.

There were 47 films in the Indian Panorama section (Feature and Non-feature). The 13-member Indian Panorama Feature Jury was headed by Aribam Syam Sharma while the 7-member Non-Feature jury was led by Chairperson, Rajendra Janglay.

The Festival had a total of 120 world, international, Asia and India premieres. The festival hosted more than 820 film delegates including 540 national and 280 international directors, actors, producers, technicians including Oscar Academy members and Hollywood experts

New Horizons from North-East- A special retrospective on ace filmmaker Aribam Shyam Sharma and special section on new generation filmmakers from the North-East were some other features of the festival this year. A multimedia exhibition on National Film Heritage Mission was organized by DAVP and NFAI

A special retrospective on Shashi Kapoor offered glimpses of the work of the legendary actor Shashi Kapoor and screened 8 of his films at IFFI 2015.

A three member delegation from the Oscar Academy visited India for the first time to present important master classes. Academy members and Hollywood experts like Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter, Humphrey Dixon and Nancy Bhishop conducted master classes on varied topics like sound designing, film archive, film editing and casting.

Eminent national and international film celebrities like Anil Kapoor, Illayaraaja, Sonakshi Sinha, Kabir Khan, Dev Patel, Mark Mangini, Ayushmann Khurrana, Aditi Rao Hydari, Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Subash Ghai, Shekhar Kapur, Kaushik Ganguly, Edward Pressman, Nikita Mikhalkov, Michael Radford, Julia Jentsch, Suha Arraf, Rajkumar Hirani, Priyadarshan, Vetrimaaran, Madhur Bhandarkar, Anand L Rai, Shyam Benegal, KK Senthil Kumar and Shankar Mahadevan to name a few were at present.