Arabic, Indian films steal the show at Osian's

New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) Eleven glorious days of cross-cultural cinematic exchange at the 10th Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema came to an end with a glittering awards ceremony here Saturday.

After a visual treat of over 200 feature and short films from around 40 Asian and Arab countries for cine-lovers across the world, the curtains finally came down.

The event was hosted by actor Koel Purie and Raman Chawla of Osian's.

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa of 'Tokyo Sonata', a film about a seemingly ordinary Japanese family won the award for the best film in the Asian and Arab film category. It has been applauded for its sensitive and panoramic portrayal of dramatically changing socio-economic and family values.

In the same section, the special jury award was given to the Palestinian film 'Salt of This Sea' directed by Annemaire Jacir, who has been debarred from entering her nation for making the film about the Palestinian life in exile and a dream to return home.

The best actor award went to Amor Hakkar for the French film 'The Yellow House' while Hiam Abbas and Rona Lipaz-Michael shared the best actress award for the Israeli film 'The Lemon Tree' by Eran Riklis.

The best director award was bestowed on Nuri Bilge Ceylan from Turkey for 'Three Monkeys'.

In the Indian film section, 'Gulabi Talkies' directed by Girish Kasaravalli was honoured with the best film award. Umashree won given the best actress award for the same film.

The best actor award in the Indian competition category went jointly to Rajat Kapur for his powerful performance in 'The Prisoner' by Prayas Gupta and Govind Namdeo for his stunning performance as an underworld kingpin in Maqbool Khan's 'Kabootar'.

In the 'Intolerance' section that has been introduced in the competition section this year, the best film award was given to Handan Ipekci's 'Hidden Faces',

The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) award was won by India's K.M. Madhusudhanan's 'Bioscope' and the First Features award went to Philippines' 'Confessional'.

The FIPRESCI award went to the widely appreciated 'Ramchand Pakistani' by Mehreen Jabbar from Pakistan and Jacir's 'Salt of This Sea'. FIPRESCI stands for Internatinal Federation of Film Critics which has its headquarters in Germany.

The best film in all categories went to 'The Band's Visit' from Israel.

The award ceremony was succeeded by a screening of 'Mumbai Cutting', a yet-to-release Indian anthology of short stories on the metropolis. The cast and crew members added glitz to the event.

The 11-day affair that will also be screening award winning films July 20, saw a massive response from the audience, critrics, filmmakers and actors from across the world.