'Sherni,' 'Soorarai Pottru,' 'Ludo' lead nominations at IFFM 2021
Vidya Balan's Sherni, Anurag Basu-directed Ludo, and Suriya-starrer Soorarai Pottru are leading the nominations at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) Awards 2021, as per a recent announcement. Also, three new categories were introduced at this annual event that would recognize the growing craze of web shows. In that section, The Family Man 2 (TFM2), and Mirzapur 2 received a nod, among others.
The award ceremony will be held virtually on August 20
Ludo, Sherni, Soorarai Pottru have been joined by Rajesh Krishnan's Lootcase, Bengali feature Tasher Ghawr, and Malayalam movie Kayattam (A'hr) in the best film category at the 12th edition of this event. IFFM recognizes the best of Indian cinema and is held at Melbourne, Australia. This year, the award ceremony will go virtual because of the pandemic, to be held on August 20.
Balan, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi picked up acting nominations
Coming to the acting nods, both Pankaj Tripathi and Rajkummar Rao were nominated for their performance in Ludo. Suriya (Soorarai Pottru), Benjamin Daimary (Jonaki Porua), and Harish Khanna (God on the Balcony) also bagged nominations. Balan (Sherni), Rasika Dugal (Lootcase), Swastika Mukherjee (Tasher Ghawr), Nimisha Sajayan (The Great Indian Kitchen), and Vinamrata Rai (Fire in the Mountains) were some of the best actress nominees.
Best Director nominees included Anurag Basu, Sudha Kongara, Amit Masurkar
Ajitpal Singh, who directed best indie film nominee Fire in the Mountains, received a nod for best director along with Basu, Sudha Kongara of the highly-acclaimed film Soorarai Pottru and Amit Masurkar of Sherni. Biswajeet Bora of God on the Balcony, Jeo Baby of The Great Indian Kitchen and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan of Kayattam (A'hr) were also nominated in this category.
And, here are the web show nominees
This year, TFM 2, Mirzapur-2, Bandish Bandits, Mismatched, or Churails could be the best series. Male acting nominees included Ali Fazal and Divyenndu (Mirzapur-2), Manoj Bajpayee (TFM 2), Saif Ali Khan and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub (Tandav). Meanwhile, female section had Samantha Akkineni (TFM 2's main highlight), Dugal and Shweta Tripathi Sharma (Mirzapur-2), Shahana Goswami (Bombay Begums), Neena Gupta (Masaba Masaba), and Prajakta Koli (Mismatched).
Documentary 'W.O.M.B' to open this year's event on August 12
To note, documentary W.O.M.B (Women Of My Billion), directed by Ajitesh Sharma, will open this year's IFFM on August 12. Earlier, actress Richa Chadha and filmmaker Onir were announced as the jury members for a short film competition to be held at the event.
