Mumbai Film Festival: All The Major Winners

The Mumbai Film Festival has finally gone on to have several films honored and has wrapped up. The 21st edition of the film festival saw Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska's meditative documentary Honeyland win award of the Best Film in the section of international films.

Honeyland, a Macedonian docu that follows one of the last practitioners of wild beekeeping, also picked up a cash prize of $35,700. Australia's entry in the foreign-language Oscar category, Rodd Rathjen’s human trafficking thriller Buoyancy, won the Silver Gateway award, which included a cash prize of $21,400.

Mumbai's grand jury prize went to Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees while Carlo Sironi's Sole earned a special jury mention as did Amjad Abu Alala’s You Will Die at Twenty.

The India Gold section's Golden Gateway award for best film went to Prateek Vats’ Eeb Allay Ooo!. The film also earned a special jury mention for best male actor for Shardul Bhardwaj for his turn as a monkey catcher employed by the government to scare away monkeys in a high-security area of India's capital, Delhi. The film also picked up a third win as best film in the Young Critics’ Choice Award.

Mohini Sharma won a special jury mention for best female actor for her turn in Aise Hi. The Silver Gateway award went to Gitanjali Rao’s animation feature Bombay Rose which had its world premiere in Venice where it was the first Indian animation feature to open the critic's week section.

Saurav Rai's Nimtoh won the grand jury prize for screenwriting.

The Film Critics Guild Award for best film went to director Kislay’s Aise Hi, while Deepti Gupta’s feminist documentary Shut Up Sona earned a special jury mention. 

The India Gold jury was headed by Franklin Leonard, founder of the online platform The Blacklist, known for its annual list of the best-unproduced screenplays; Cannes director of the film department, Christian Jeune; IMDB CEO Col Needham; and Dublin International Film Festival director Grainne Humphreys.

The festival also honored acclaimed Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles with excellence in cinema award Tuesday following the screening of his latest film The Two Popes, which will stream worldwide on Netflix.

The festival concluded with closing film Saand Ki Aankh, a real-life drama based on two women sharpshooters starring Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar.