Padmaavat, Sanju dominate nominations at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards 2018

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne which celebrates richness and diversity of contemporary Indian cinema has released this year’s competition section nominations dominated by Sanju along with the Padmaavat. The jury consists of the veteran actress Simi Garewal, Australian producer Sue Maslin, Romeo & Juliet editor Jill Bilcock, scriptwriter Andrew Anastasios, Bollywood producer Nikhil Advani and director Geoffrey Wright.

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Mitu Bhowmick Lange, the director of the film festival says, “Our competition section is as diverse as the films and people who come for the festival. It has some mainstream, indie, and regional films but the one thing they share no matter what the language or theme is that it is some fantastic eye-catching cinema. That's always been the goal of the festival to appreciate and applaud those who create films for their audiences."

"Our jury is a mix of Australian and Indian directors, producers, and actors who together make for the perfect jury with experiences in two different industries but share a common thread, the love for cinema. I cannot wait to see what they choose, especially what our Australian filmmakers select,” he adds.

They will choose winners across six categories. The nominations under each category have been given below:

Best Film

• Padman
• Hichki
• Padmaavat
• Sanju
• Secret Superstar
• Raazi
• Mahanati
• Rangasthalam

Posters of Padmaavat and Sanju. Taken from Twitter /@filmpadmaavat, @RajkumarHirani

Best Indie Film

•  In the shadows
• Village Rockstars
• Balekempa 
• Up
• Down and Sideways (Documentary)
• Mayurakshi
• Garbage
• Sir
• Love Sonia

Best Actor

• Ranbir Kapoor — Sanju
• Varun Dhawan — October
• Ranveer Singh — Padmaavat
• Akshay Kumar — Padman
• Manoj Bajpayee — In the Shadows
• Fahadh Faasil — The Exhibit and the Eyewitness
• Soumitra Chatterjee — Mayurakshi
• Shahid Kapoor — Padmaavat

Best Supporting Performance

• Vicky Kaushal — Sanju
• Ranvir Shorey — In the Shadows
• Samantha Akkineni — Mahanati
• Richa Chadha — Love Sonia
• Freida Pinto — Love Sonia
• Trimala Adhikari — Garbage
• Meher Vij — Secret Superstar

Best Director

• Rajkumar Hirani — Sanju
• Shoojit Sircar — October
• R. Balki — Padman
• Siddharth P Malhotra — Hichki
• Advait Chandan — Secret Superstar
• Sanjay Leela Bhansali — Padmaavat
• Rima Das — Village Rockstars
• Dipesh Jain — In the Shadows
• Ere Gowda — Balekempa
• Suresh Triveni — Tumhari Sulu
• Meghna Gulzar — Raazi
• Tabrez Noorani — Love Sonia
• Rohena Gera — Sir

Best Actress

• Rani Mukherjee — Hichki
• Vidya Balan — Tumhari Sulu
• Deepika Padukone — Padmaavat
• Alia Bhatt — Raazi
• Bhanita Das — Village Rockstars
• Keerthy Suresh — Mahanati
• Tillotama Shome — Sir
• Zaira Wasim — Secret Superstar

Films like Konkona Sharma’s Death in the Gunj, Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick under my Burkha, Shakun Batra’s Kapoor and Sons, Vikramaditya Motwane’s Trapped, Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal, M Manikandan’s Kaaka Muttai, Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider and Rahul Bose’s Poorna have all been winners at the IFFM Awards.