A year after winning Grand Prix, no awards for Indian cinema in Cannes

CANNES, May 24: Mumbai-based filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan has failed to repeat his award-winning debut at the Cannes Film Festival a decade ago.
Ghayawan’s sophomore feature film, ‘Homebound’, has returned with no prizes at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, ten years after the director won the Promising Future Prize for ‘Masaan’ at the festival.
‘Masaan’, which premiered in the Cannes festival’s Un Certain Regard section in 2015, had also won the International Critics’ Prize in the same category.
‘Homebound’, part of Un Certain Regard section which celebrates fresh voices in world cinema, was not on the list of winners at the award ceremony last night.
Ghaywan was expected to continue his award-winning appearance in Un Certain Regard category after picking up two awards for ‘Masaan’ in 2015.
On Thursday, ‘A Doll Made Up of Clay’, the only other Indian entry in a competitive event at the Cannes Film Festival this year, also failed to win an award in the event’s La Cinef competition for film schools across the world.
Last year, Mumbai-born director Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’ won the Grand Prix, the second-biggest award of the Cannes Film Festival.
Film and Television Institute of India, Pune entry, ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ directed by Chidananda S Naik, had also won the top prize in the festival’s film school competition last year.
Besides ‘All We Imagine As Light’ and ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’, Kolkata-born actor Anasuya Sengupta won the Best Actress Award in Un Certain Regard category last year for her performance in ‘The Shameless’.
‘Homebound’ and ‘A Doll Made Up of Clay’ were the only two Indian films eligible for an award at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The only other Indian film in official selection, Satyajit Ray’s ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ (Days and Nights in the Forest), was part of the Cannes Classics section for restored films.
‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza’ by Palestinian filmmakers Arab Nasser and Tarzan Nasser won the Best Director Prize in Un Certain Regard section for the two brothers.
Un Certain Regard category’s top prize, Un Certain Regard Prize, went to Chilean film, ‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo’ by debutant director Diego C spedes.
The Jury Prize was bagged by the Colombian feature film, ‘A Poet’, directed by Sim n Mesa Soto.
British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker was the head of Un Certain Regard jury this year.
The Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or award will be announced at the closing ceremony tonight. (UNI)

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