The 9 day long International Film Festival of India 2017 concluded today in a colourful closing ceremony held at Goa. The theme of this year’s IFFI was ‘Connecting the World through Stories’. Various prestigious awards including Golden Peacock, Silver Peacock, Life Time Achievement Award and Indian Personality of the Year Award were conferred during the star studded ceremony.

 

Smt Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of Textiles and Information & Broadcasting and Shri. Akshay Kumar conferring the Indian Personality of the Year Award to Shri. Amitabh Bachchan

          

Smt Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of Textiles and Information & Broadcasting conferring the Life Time Achievement Award to Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan

 French movie ‘120 Beats per Minute’, directed by Robin Campillo bagged the award for Best Film in IFFI 2017. The award came with the Golden Peacock trophy, certificate and a cash prize amount of Rs. 40, 00,000 shared between the Director and the Producer equally. Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, for his role in 120 Beats per Minute bagged the best actor award, picking up the Silver Peacock. 120 Beats per Minute tells the story of a group of activists in Paris in early 1990’s, taking on government agencies and major pharmaceutical companies, battling for HIV/AIDS patients.

The Best Director award was given to Vivian Qu for the film ‘Angels Wear White’, who bagged the Silver Peacock Trophy and cash prize of Rs. 15,00,000. While Parvathy Thiruvothu Kottuvata was awarded the Best Actress award for the Malayalam film “Take Off”, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart won the Best Actor Award for the film “'120 Beats per Minute”. Both received the Silver Peacock Trophy and cash Prize of Rs 10,00,000 each. Special Jury award, which carries the Silver Peacock Award and a cash prize of Rs. 15,00,000, was awarded to Mahesh Narayanan for his Malayalam movie ‘Take Off’. Kiro Russo received the award for ‘Best Debut Feature Film of a Director’ for his Spanish Movie ‘Dark Skull’.

Shri Amitabh Bachchan, award winning and acclaimed actor was honoured with the Indian Film Personality of the Year 2017 for his contribution to Indian Cinema. The 75-year-old actor's glorious career has spanned almost five decades, in which he has been decorated with a plethora of national and international honours.

  Acclaimed Canadian filmmaker, Atom Egoyan was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the closing ceremony of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2017.  The festival also honoured his work with a special film section that had screened 3 films produced by the 57-year-old filmmaker. Atom Egoyan is best known for his films "Exotica", "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Chloe". The lifetime achievement award consisting of a cash prize of Rs. 10,00,000 is conferred upon a master filmmaker for his/her outstanding contribution to cinema.

 

 The ICFT –UNESCO Gandhi Medal was awarded to Marathi Movie 'Kshitij- A Horizon', directed by filmmaker Manouj Kadaamh. This award, instituted by the International Council for Film & Television, Paris and UNESCO is given to a film that portrays the Gandhian values of peace and harmony. The film is set on the life of Vacchi, 12 year old daughter of a sugarcane field labourer, who overcomes various challenges to pursue her education.

 

 

           

 The closing ceremony of IFFI 2017 was anchored by Karan Johar, Sonali Bendre and Zaira Wasim and eminent Indian film personalities such as Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Bhumi Pednekar, Sushant Singh Rajput, Sidharth Malhotra and Huma Qureshi graced the closing ceremony. The closing ceremony also witnessed scintillating performances from singer and composer Papon, enthralling the audience with his soulful voice and music and from actor Sidharth Malhotra with his dazzling dance performance.

 

 

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