Singapore, Oct 26 Ten Indian films and documentaries were among the 22 nominated for the second Asian Festival of First Films (AFFF 2006) awards here last night.
The other 12 films and documentaries were from China, France, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.
They would be competing for the best awards in nine categories: film, director, producer, actor, actress, script/screenplay, cinematographer/editor, documentary and documentary director.
The films were selected from a record 330 submissions from 60 countries, nearly 40 percent more than the total number of entries received for the inaugurated festival last year.
Indian actor Kunal Kohli, Hong Kong’s Alex Law, Philippines’ Raymond Lee, Taiwan’s Daw Ming Lee and Sirkka Moeller from the United Kingdom spent more 300 hours to review the submitted films and documentaries for the final nominations.
Mr Ramakant S Gaikwad’s film, ''Dombiwali Fast'', has been nominated for best film, producer and director.
Mr Mukhesh Bhatt’s film, ''Gangster'', has been nominated for best cinematographer, naming Yudhvir Singh. Kangana Ranaut from ''Gangster'' film has also been nominated for the best female actor.
''Omkara'' film’s Tassaduq Hussain and ''Lost or Found'' film’s Nitin Bal Chauhan has also been nominated for the best cinematographer award, making it three of the four Indians in the category.
Singapore’s Ken Minehan is to compete with the Indian cinematographers for his film ''Becoming Royston'', which is in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Bengali documentary ''Bagher Baccha'' by producer Bishnu Dev Halder of the Stayajit Ray Film and TV Institute, and a 20-minute Hindi documentary ''One Less Show'' by Nayantara Kotian have been nominated for the best documentary awards.
Manak Matiyani and Kuber Sharma have been nominated for best director of documentary for the 45-minute English and Hindi documentary ''All About Mothers''.
The films and documentaries will premier at public screenings in Singapore during the week-long AFFF to be held from Nov 29-Dec 5, 2006. |
