LITTLE ZIZOU bags 2 awards at NY film festival

The Sooni Taraporevala–directed LITTLE ZIZOU, selected as the closing film on 9th November, 2008 at the 8th Mahindra Indo–American Arts Council Film Festival (MIAAC) came trumps when it received the Best Director and Time Warner Best Screenplay awards.

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JODHAA AKBAR wins the

Ashutosh Gowariker’s magnum opus JODHAA AKBAR wins yet another international award of the AUDIENCE AWARD of the BEST FOREIGN FEATURE FILM at the 32nd Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil, South America.

This award comes just after the Grand Prix Award for BEST FILM and the BEST ACTOR award that the film won at the Golden Minbar Film Festival held in Kazan, Russia over a week ago.

”I am extremely happy. I would really like to thank the audiences in Brazil for appreciating the film. This is the second honour coming just a week after we got the Grand Prix Award at the Golden Minbar Film Festival, KAZAN. What I am most happy with is that audiences as diverse as the Russians and the Brazilians have honoured the film. I am thrilled that the film has crossed over.” said an elated Ashutosh Gowariker.

Lage Raho Munnabhai national awards

Pulijanmam’, ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ bag top national awards

New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) The Malayalam film “Pulijanmam” won the best feature film award at the 54th National Film Awards 2006, while “Lage Raho Munnabhai” was adjudged the best popular feature film providing wholesome entertainment at a glittering, star-studded ceremony here Tuesday evening.

“Khosla Ka Ghosla” won the award for the best feature film in the Hindi language category.

The awards could not be conferred two years ago.

“It is a sense of great joy and we want to congratulate everyone from their field of cinema,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said at the function at the Vigyan Bhawan.

“Pulijanmam”, directed by Priyanandan, is a layered film that uses metaphors to address global and local issues of contemporary society. The best feature film award carries a cash prize of Rs 250,000.

“Lage Raho Munnabhai” directed by Raj Kumar Hirani is a humourous tale of a lovable rogue’s brush with his own brand of Gandhigiri - inspired by the Father of the Nation.

The Indira Gandhi Award for the best debut film by a director were bagged by “Eakantham” (Malayalam) and “Kabul Express” (Hindi) directed by Madhu Kaithapuram and Kabir Khan respectively.

“Eakantham” portrays the solitude of two ageing brothers who have lost everyone and “Kabul Express” narrates the trauma of two Indian journalists during the collapse of Taliban post 9/11 Afghanistan.

The award for the best director was bagged by Madhur Bhandarkar for “Traffic Signal” - a tale weaving the lives, livelihoods and concerns of the street dwellers in the metro and the inspiring stand that makes the protagonist a role model across society.

This is his third award.

Kolkata-based actor Soumitra Chatterjee won the best actor award for his “Podokkhep” (Bengali) and Priyamani received the award for the best actress for “Paruthi Veeran”.

Dilip Prabhavalkar won the best supporting actor for “Lage Raho Munnabhai” while Konkona Sen Sharma bagged the award for the best supporting actress for her sensitive portrayal of a village belle in “Omkara“, whose director Vishal Bhardwaj bagged the special jury award for the movie based on Shakespeare’s “Othello”.

Brad Pitt Gets Award For Best Actor At Venice International Film Festival, One Year Later

The Venice International Film Festival honored Brad Pitt with its Best Actor trophy on Wednesday, People reported — but not for one of this year’s films. The award was held for him since winning last year for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

Brad is at the festival for his latest, “Burn After Reading,” the Coen brothers’ dark comedy in which he costars with frequent screen partner George Clooney. Pitt plays a gym employee who stumbles upon a disc of secret CIA information.

“I guess you forgot something here years ago,” the mistress of ceremonies, Russian actress Kseniya Rappoport, reportedly told the actor upon announcing the award. “Brad, this is yours.”

“Congratulations for your twins,” she added a nod to the recent births of his latest offspring with Angelina Jolie, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon.

Rappoport reportedly then gave Brad a yellow flower for his costar, telling him, “This is for your friend George.”

“You can run but you can’t hide,” Pitt said upon receiving the award. “It was an honor to receive this last year and it’s an honor to receive it this year. Thank you very much.”

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Yash Chopra, one of modern Indian cinema’s most shining lights, was formally bestowed with France’s highest civilian award, the “Officier de la Legion d’ Honneur” (Officer of the Legion of Honour) at a glittering ceremony in Delhi on 5th July 2008. The French President, Nikolas Sarkozy, had announced this award by decree no. 01D dated 21st January, 2008 and the award was conferred upon Yash Chopra on the 5th of July, 2008.

Yash Chopra has thus joined a very select list of awardees, including such luminaries from the Indian cultural sphere as the legendary Satyajit Ray, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, India’s nightingale Lata Mangeshkar and megastar Amitabh Bachchan.

The letter from the French ambassador, M. Jerome Bonnafont, announcing the award said that it was not just for Chopra’s “contribution to cinema as an art and cultural industry” and his “dedication to promote young filmmakers” but also in recognition of his efforts to foster the spirit of “collaboration between France and India in the field of audiovisual arts.” The distinction also recognized Yash Chopra’s contribution to cultural diversity and making Indian cinema a global force to reckon with.

Even though awards are not new to him, Yash Chopra was delighted to receive the highest honour of a country where arts and culture are central to the way of life. Reacting to the award he said, “I am honoured to be recognized by the Republic of France as a cultural ambassador for my country. I am very glad that our efforts at making Indian cinema a global phenomenon are being saluted by France, a country that has itself a long and glorious history as a nation of passionate lovers of art and culture. I accept this award humbly and thank President Sarkozy for deeming me worthy of his nation’s highest honour.” 

Bangkok, (IANS) Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will not attend the prestigious International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards gala starting here Friday.

“He had been approached and invited. Unfortunately the period he spent with the Indian Premier League matches disrupted his entire schedule,” Sabbas Joseph, director Wizcraft, told IANS here Thursday.

“Shah Rukh has just begun his film with Aditya Chopra. So he is busy with that. But we would have been delighted if he could have come,” Joseph said.

For the last two years Shah Rukh has not attended the IIFA awards, the brand ambassador of which is Amitabh Bachchan.

Is his rivalry with Bachchan the reason?

“I don’t think there is any rivalry between Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. Both have their unique space. Shah Rukh is a great entertainer in any scenario,” said Joseph.

However, a bevy of Bollywood stars including Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Jayed Khan and Urmila Matondkar are set to keep the fans entertained.

Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai will make the event all the more exciting with their presence. Their much-awaited “Sarkar Raj” is premiering here. Their green carpet will also be attended by the Thai Princess.

The stars were out in full force on Sunday evening for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.

And the red carpet was full of top notch fashion, with celebs like Lindsay Lohan, Sarah Jessic Parker and the stars of The Hills all strutting their stuff for photogs lining the gold carpet.

Lindsay Lohan was a gold carpet stunner at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards held at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California on Sunday (May 31).

LiLo was on hand for her presenting duties at the Mike Myers hosted awards ceremony.