Cuban film 'To the West in Zapata' best film in 31st KIFF in international competition

Kolkata, Nov 13 (PTI) Cuban film 'To the West in Zapata' by David Bim bagged the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for the Best Film in International Competition on Innovation in Moving Images at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival which concluded on Thursday.

Sri Lankan movie ‘Riverstone’ by Lalith Rathnayake got the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for Best Director category in the same section, while Croatian film ‘Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day’ by Ivona Juka received the Special Jury Award for the Best Director.

'To the West in Zapata' also received the FIPRESCI, a prize given by the International Federation of Film Critics.

Director Goutam Ghosh, internationally acclaimed for his slew of films including ‘Paar’, ‘Padmanadir Majhi’, ‘Kalbela’, ‘Moner Manush’, ‘Raaghir’ and ‘Antarjali Yatra’ was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award in celebration of the 100th anniversary of FIPRESCI.

The Golden Royal Bengal Award for Best Indian documentary went to ‘Bijoyee Japoner Patkatha’ (The saga of a glorious life : Bijoylaxmi Barman) by Joydeep Banerjee.

‘Porshi’ (neighbours) by Chandrasish Roy bagged the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger award for Best film in the Bengali panorama.

Sivaranjini's film 'Victoria' was the best Indian film in the NETPAC award category.

Urging film makers and producers to come to West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that as cultural capital of the country, Kolkata will continue to be the forerunner in the field of arts.

Making a surprise visit at the closing ceremony of the KIFF, she said, "There is no shortage of talent in Bengal as we are at the forefront of cultural endeavour." She announced the names of awardees in some categories at the glittering closing ceremony at the state-run Rabindra Sadan cultural complex.

Describing KIFF as a celebration of people's spirit, she said, "Hollywood and Bollywood have the resources to make good films, but don't forget Kolkata is the cultural capital. If there is more investment in Bengal, our films will reach greater heights”. PTI SUS NN