Russian Film ‘Celestial Camel’ Wins Best Feature Film Award
21 November,Hyderabad
The 19th Golden Elephant International Children’s Film Festival, India, came to a splendid close here Saturday with the award for Best Feature film going to “Celestial Camel” from Russia, and the second best to “Laybrinthus from Netherlands”, in feature film category.
The best screen play award went to “Code M” from Netherlands while in short film category the best short film award went to Yellow Festival.In the ASIAN PANORAMA – ADULT JURY “How to Steal a Dog” from Korea and the “Tree in A Sea” bagged the award for best short film.The award contains Rs 1,50 Lakh in cash and a citation for the Best film and Rs 1 lakh in cash and a citation for best short film.
Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, ESL Narasimhan, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that he was happy that the CFSI had introduced the Little Directors category from the past edition.
Referring to the film “Cycle Donga” (Cycle thief), Directed by Master Mouli, the Governor said in a lighter vein that he doesn’t know whether the cycle thief was caught by the police in the film or not but the director of the film captured the hearts of viewers.
Chairman of the CFSI, Mukesh Khanna called upon children to become physically fit and bring laurels to the country. Amid cheers from kids Khanna announced that he would return as Shaktimaan, the popular serial which hit the small screen across India which was telecast by Doordarshan. Congratulating the award winners of the 19th Edition of ICFFI, Khanna said that he will support all the efforts being made for construction of children cultural complex in Hyderabad.
Welcoming the guests, CFSI CEO, Shravan Kumar, urged the film makers, production units to continue the making of films for kids.He also urged the children to make many more children films.Earlier, CFSI Chairman Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Puneet Kansal felicitated the Governor ESL Narasimhan with a memento.
The presentation of the films evoked great emotions and the concluding day was one of the most intense moments among the many highlights at this years festival. For seven days the festival demonstrated the creative power and diversity of cinema.With over 2,00,00 children attending the festival, a new attendance record was set.
The programme was widely acclaimed by both the public and the critics, and now everybody is looking forward to the return of Gajju in 2017.Minister for Commercial Taxes, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, thanked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for making Hyderabad a permanent venue for hosting childrens Film Festivals.Government Media advisor, Dr K V Ramana Chary, also spoke.