Nude wins Best Film award at NYIFF 2018

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NEW YORK – The Marathi film ‘Nude’ won two awards, including Best Film, at the 18th annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), which concluded over the weekend.

The longest-running, most prestigious South Asian Film Festival in North America, NYIFF, ended with a bang on Saturday with its closing night film, Omerta, the New York premiere of the biopic on Islamic fundamentalist Omar Saeed Sheikh.

The film was followed by a Q&A between festival director Aseem Chhabra, director Hansal Mehta and actors Rupinder Nagra and Timothy Ryan Hickernell.

The film festival showcased 78 shorts, documentaries and feature films in 11 languages over a six-day-period, May 7th to May 12th, at the Village East Cinemas on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The festival boasted four world premieres, two international premieres, six North American premieres, one US premiere and 11 New York premieres from four South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka), as well as North America and the United Kingdom.

Actor Manoj Bajpayee bagged the Best Actor Award for his work in Gali Guleiyan (In the Shadows).

Acknowledging the praise and good wishes coming to him, Manoj posted on Twitter: “‘Gali Guleiyan’ gets an honour at New York Indian Film Festival. Congratulations to the team of and the captain Dipesh Jain (director).”

“We are elated to hear about Manoj sir’s award at NYIFF. It is an acknowledgement of his stellar performance in the film. We consider ourselves very blessed to have worked with an actor like him who embraces his character so seamlessly and makes it his own. Heartiest congratulations to him once again,” said Dipesh Jain, director, in a statement.

Gali Guleiyan is a Hindi psychological drama about a man trapped within the walls and alleys of Old Delhi and his own mind. He attempts to break free to find a human connection.

The film has on board an ensemble cast including Ranvir Shorey, Neeraj Kabi and Shahana Goswami along with debutant child actor Om Singh.

Produced by Shuchi Jain of Exstant Motion Pictures, Gali Guleiyan will soon release worldwide. It has already travelled to over 15 international film festivals.

The list of winners of NYIFF 2018:

Best Film: Nude

Best Director: Nishil Sheth (Bhasmasur)

Best Screenplay: Chumbak (writers Sandeep Modi and Saurabh Bhave)

Best Actor: Manoj Bajpayee (In The Shadows)

Best Actress: Kalyanee Mulay (Nude)

Best Child Actor: Ali Haji (Noblemen)

Best Short: Maacher Jhol (The Fish Curry), directed by Abhishek Verma

Best Documentary: Abu directed by Arshad Khan.

Like the Oscars and Golden Globes, the jurors sent their decisions directly to KPMG, who brought the envelopes for the winning films and filmmakers to the awards ceremony.

(With inputs from IANS)