1th SiGNS Film Festival for Short and Documentary films 2017-Renu Savant ,Vijaya Singh ,Ravisankar and Oinam Doren won the John Abraham awards

 
The five-day SiGNS Short and Documentary Film Festival 2017 ,the 11th edition,concluded today at Kochi .It was a  tribute to Gauri Lankesh, renowned journalist who was shot dead by fascist forces in Bangalore recently. The  fest opened by  auteur film maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan  on 26th of this month and concluded yesterday with Kamal ,the famous film director  being the  Guest of Honour .Kamal gave away the awards ,certificates and award money to the winners. Chelavur Venu ,Vice President of the FFSI, Keralam presided over the function and  K.G.Mohankumar Festival Coordinator presented the report on FFSI & SiGNS.The Artistic Director of the current edition of the festival A.Meera Sahib presented an overview of the festival contents. Amrit Gangar ,Jury Chairperson declared the awards of the main jury and Madhu Janardhanan declared the awards of FFSI for best Malayalam Short and Documentary films. Amudan R.P and Dr.Meena T.Pillai JURY members offered felicitation .

 AWARDS

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

Miryavar Kahi Mahine (Many Months in Mirya) [Marathi]

Dir: Renu Savant

BEST FILM - CINEMA EXPERIMENTA

 Unmathavath (Malayalam)

Dir: Ravisankar

BEST FILM - SHORT FICTION

Andhere Mein (In the Dark) (Hindi)

Dir: Vijaya Singh

BEST - CINEMA OF RESISTANCE

Theatre of the Earth (Manipuri)

Dir: Oinam Doren

JURY’s SPECIAL MENTION – DOCUMENTARY FILM

Nostalgia for the Future (Hindi)

Dirs: Avijit Mukul Kishore and Rohan Sivkumar

JURY’s SPECIAL MENTION – SHORT FICTION FILM

Saavat (Marathi)

Dir: Swapnil Rajsekhar

The festival had four  curated sections viz Turkey ,Croatia ,Resistance Cinema, and International Windows .There were Jury Films,Artistic Directors choice,Homage films (K.R.Mohanan and Chalam Bennurarkar).During the festival  film historian and curator Amrit Gangar  delivered  the John Abraham Memorial lecture  and  famed film director P.T.Kunhi muhammad  delivered the K R Mohanan memorial talk .. The festival which show cased about 110 films from India and abroad including country focus films from Turkey and Croatia .Houses with Small Windows, directed by Kurdish origin director Bulent Ozturk and Arin, directed by another Kurdish origin director Mizgin Mujde Arslan, were the opening movies and award winning films as closing films.

photo courtesy:Tendergreennorth communications,Kochi