Odisha films win big at COVID-19 International Film Fest

Bhubaneswar: At least six Odia short films won awards under different categories at COVID-19 International Film Festival (CIFF) 2020 held in Bhubaneswar.

While ‘Hold My Hands’ directed by Odia filmmaker Suraj Pattanaik bagged Tamra Ashoka (Bronze) prize – the third best film award at the award function, Shanti Raj and Pratik Arnab the awards in the category of Best Editor and Best Debut Actor respectively for the short film ‘Patience in Lockdown‘.

Film personality Ayush Jena bagged the Best Cinematographer award for the short film ‘Sambhabana’.

The Special Jury Awards went to Manish Naik for the film ‘Gilehari’, Swaroop Ray for the film ‘Antardhwanee’ and Stitadhi Rath for the film ‘Mrityupurare Yamraj’.

Similarly, filmmakers Anuska Priyadarshini, Manish Naik and Priyansu Parida won the Best Debut Director award for the films ‘Sambhabana’, ‘Gilehari’ and ‘Patience in Lockdown’ respectively.

Tazeen Qureshy and Silpi Kesu Das bagged the awards in category of Best Documentary for ‘Corona Warrior’ and ‘Covid 19 The Creaming Sun’.

This apart, short films ‘C+’ directed by Subodh Pandey and Harsbardhan Vyas and ‘My Mom’ directed by Rakesh Mairangthem were awarded as the Best and second Best films during the film festival. The awards were announced online recently.

All the movies are based on COVID-19  and have been dedicated to the Corona warriors, who are at the frontline serving people during the pandemic.