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Sameera Reddy

Osian’s Cinefan concludes with hopes of further growth
25th July 2005 20.00 IST
By N. K. Deoshi

The 7th Osian’s Cinefan Asian Film Festival received an unprecedented response from the movie buffs in Delhi.

What started as a minor event seven years ago has today become the largest festival of Asian Cinema. The Osian’s Cinefan fest has become for many a window to the cinema from the Middle East and Asia Minor to the countries from Far East and South East Asia.

This year’s festival, the largest in seven years, featured a wide array of films in as many as twelve different sections – including tributes to Satyajit Ray and Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

After ten days of delectable feast of celluloid wonders, the Cinefan Fest concluded on Sunday with bonhomie, high spirits and hopes and promises for further growth in the years to come.

The main auditorium at Delhi’s Siri Fort Complex was full to its capacity and people were even sitting in the aisles at the closing ceremony of the fest. Cine personalities like Rajat Kapoor, Mita Vashisht, Sameera Reddy , Rahul Bose , Sarika, Sharmila Tagore and eminent filmmakers like Mrinal Sen, Mani Kaul, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Buddhadeb Dasgupta were present at the occasion.

Aruna Vasudev, the festival’s director, said she was absolutely delighted at the overwhelming audience response the festival got this year.

“We started with the aim of creating audiences for such cinema in India. That aim has developed into the larger one of bringing the art and industry of cinema together, thanks to the support and response we have got from you (the audience),” said Mrs. Vasudev while addressing the huge gathering.

Neville Tuli, the indefatigable chairman of Osian group, spoke about the power of cinema as an art medium and an instrument of social change.

“Cinema is the first and foremost creative discipline. It is an art form and it can also be at the core of building great knowledge systems. And only in fulfilling this duty does it truly justify becoming great entertainment,” Mr. Tuli said.

Mr. Tuli promised that the next year’s festival will be “a bigger, better event” and the aim, he said, is “to become one of the best festivals in the world”.

The closing ceremony saw the distribution of awards to the winners, followed by the screening of Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s movie Kaalpurush.

The winners at the festival were:

Best Film in the Asian Competition: ‘Of Love and Eggs’ (Indonesia)

Best Indian Film: ‘Nisshabd’ (Bengali)

Best Actor Award: Parsa Piroozfar (Iran)

Best Actress Award: Zhang Jingchu (China)

FIPRESCI award for the Best Film: ‘Tear of the Cold’ (Iran)

NETPAC award for the Best Film: ‘The Black and White Milk Cow’ (Chinese)

Special Jury Prize: ‘Foresaken Land’ (Sri Lanka-France)

Best Actor (Indian) award: Sabyasachi Chakraborty

Best Actress (Indian) award: Trinaneelina Banerjee

Special Jury Prize: ‘Yahaan’

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