Aparna Sen and Nandita Das, filmmakers, were honoured with the Icon Award at this year’s London Indian Film Festival for their contributions to Indian and global cinema.
The London Indian Film Festival (LIFF), which took place over two weeks across four cities in London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, concluded last week with a series of screenings, in-person sessions, cinema discussions, and an awards ceremony.
The Icon Award from LIFF was a rare honour and pleasure for Sen, whose latest film The Rapist was one of the festival’s European premieres highlights this year.
Making films on my own terms without commercial compromise for 40 years has often seemed a thankless job, but now, after the Icon Award, I feel vindicated. Thank you LIFF for continuing to believe in meaningful cinema, she said.
Das expressed gratitude for her Icon Award as she joined Sen and actor daughter Konkona Sen Sharma for a special cinematic conversation as part of the LIFF 2022 lineup.
LIFF has grown from strength to strength, and their appreciation for my choices and work has touched me. She expressed her gratitude.
The audience-voted Best Film Award went to director Pan Nalin’s touching ode to cinema, Chhello Show (Last Film Show).
This is truly inspirational, uplifting, and illuminating. The only dream I have as a filmmaker is to be loved by the audience, said Nalin, who has also directed award-winning films such as Samsara and Valley of the Flowers.
Jaagran, co-directed by Ritviq Joshi and Hardik Sadhwani, won the LIFF Jury Prize in the annual Satayjit Ray short film category.
The film was praised by the judges for its engaging, relatable, and witty exploration of a serious issue that everyone can relate to, as well as for being socially and politically astute, brilliantly acted, and hilariously funny.
Jaagran was an overly ambitious 20-page fantasy that we watched together. We miraculously assembled an experienced team who believed in the script and assisted us in learning and making our dream a reality, said Joshi and Sadhwani.
Today, we’re back to square one after being honoured with an award bearing Satyajit Ray’s name. We’ve returned to a dream. But this time, it’s not just the two of us. They claimed that this one belonged to 20 more dreamers.
Taapsee Pannu received an Outstanding Achievement Award for her hard-hitting roles, including the new Anurag Kashyap film Dobaaraa, which opened the festival.
The annual festival celebrating South Asian cinema returned to theatres this year after a switch to virtual and hybrid models due to the Covid pandemic lockdowns.
We awarded National Lottery funding through the BFI Audience Fund to enable the festival to have a wider footprint across the UK and to raise the profile of South Asian cinema, and it is fantastic to see it achieve that and more, said Ben Luxford, BFI’s Head of UK Audiences.
LIFF director Cary Sawhney stated that the festival’s push to return fully to cinemas across the UK drew record crowds.
Certain cinemas, such as the BFI Southbank, stated that the festival was their best seller during the time period. He believes there is a strong desire to return to the big screen, especially with a festival lineup of high-quality premieres and frequent guest appearances.
The pandemic, as well as government and other restrictions on the mobility of communal gatherings, have had a disastrous and disproportionate impact on the creative and arts sectors and cities, particularly London. According to Tony Matharu, patron of the festival and chairman of title sponsor Blue Orchid Hotels, “the importance of sharing experiences, human contact, and the need to witness diversity have all been highlighted in recent times.”