Pondicherry International Film Festival 2019 Gets an Overwhelming Response

Bengali film Manohar & I wins the Best Feature; Tamil film Baaram gets Special Jury Award; Sivaranjani & Two Other Women bags the Special Award-Women Empowerment

PUDUCHERRY, India, Sept. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Pondicherry International Film Festival 2019 (PIFF 2019) presented by Pickurflick comes to a gala end on 29th September 2019. The screenings throughout were well received with packed houses.

Bengali film Manohar & I (Ami O Manohar) by Amitabha Chaterji won the Best Feature Award, Best Documentary was awarded to Rockumentary: Evolution of Indian Rock by Abhimanyu Kukreja, LGBTQ based short film Miss Man by Tathagata Ghosh won the Best Short Film and the Special Jury Award went to the National Award winning Tamil film Baaram (The Burden) by Priya Krishnaswamy. Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum (Sivaranjani & two other women) by Vasanth S Sai got Special Award-Women Empowerment. The jury panel was presided by renowned film critic Gautaman Bhaskaran.

The weeklong film festival had screenings at Pondicherry University & Multimedia Centre Auditorium in association with Cinema Paradiso & Aurofilm. Film aficionados from Puducherry & nearby states thronged the screenings and got an opportunity to engage & interact with the film makers who presented their films at the festival.

Opening film Baaram (The Burden) by Priya Krishnaswamy received standing ovation and was attended by the entire cast & crew of the film. Popular actor Harish Uthaman attended the World Premiere of his Tamil film Ashvamithra directed by Puducherry based film maker Earthling Koushalya.

Actor Vijay Sethupathi's film Seethakaathi had special screenings at both the venues and was attended by director Balaji Tharaneetharan, actress Gayathrie & the crew of the film. The cast & crew of Seethakaathi had a special interaction with the students from Pondicherry University.

India's first documentary which traces the origin of Indian rock from the 1930s- Rockumentary: Evolution of Indian Rock which was presented by its director Abhimanyu Kukreja, won rave reviews.

Renowned actor Prakash Bare presented his film Painting Life directed by Dr Bijukumar Damodaran and the closing film Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum (Sivaranjani & two other women) presented by Vasanth S Sai was very well appreciated by the audience.

"A platform for independent cinema is always welcome and the Pondicherry International Film Festival has taken this initiative forward by screening some fascinating shorts, documentaries and features. The Festival will in the years to come become one of the leaders in this endeavour," shared the Jury Head Gautaman Bhaskaran in conclusion.

Commenting on the film festival, Founder & CEO of Pickurflick, Abhishek Sinha said, "We are genuinely pleased with the overall response that the 2nd edition of PIFF received and this also endorses the need for differentiated content which we are championing through Pickurflick."

Co-founder & CBO, Arun Rathi said, "The success of PIFF 2019 further augments Pickurflick's ecosystem of Indie filmmakers from across the globe. This ratification is vital for our omni channel distribution platform & is really encouraging for the independent cinema scene worldwide."

About PIFF 2019:

Pondicherry International Film Festival (PIFF 2019) is presented by Pickurflick, a global distribution platform for curated independent cinema across formats (shorts, features, documentary etc) in vernacular & International languages.

About Pickurflick:

We curate award-winning lndie cinema from across the globe & across formats which you won't find on other platforms. Pickurflick is an omnichannel distribution platform with presence on web, TV and other diverse platforms. Currently it has a channel on Roku for North America and has a tie up with Qyou TV India.

Pickurflick is currently one of the fastest growing indie cinema platforms in India with an ecosystem of more than 15,000 film makers from across the globe. Inaugural edition of PIFF was held in September 2018 with 120+ film screenings across multiple venues.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1003239/PIFF_2019.jpg PWR PWR

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