Indus Valley Times

Melbourne: Suriya-starrer “Jai Bhim”, Kabir Khan’s sports drama “83”, Alia Bhatt-fronted “Gangubai Kathiwadi”, Shoojit Sircar’s directorial “Sardar Udham” and “The Rapist” by Aparna Sen are the top nominees at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) Awards 2022, the organisers said Tuesday.

The 13th edition of the gala will be held in the Victorian capital from August 12-20, both in person and virtually.

With four, “Jai Bhim” is the film with most nominations, closely followed by “83”, “Gangubai Kathiwadi”, “Sardar Udham”, “Jalsa” and “The Rapist” with three nods each.

The best film nominees also include “Badhaai Do”, “Minnal Murali” and “Paka” (River of Blood).

According to the organisers, the award ceremony will take place at the iconic Palais Theatre in Melbourne on August 14.

Gopal Hegde (“Pedro”), Rajkummar Rao (“Badhaai Do”), Ramnish Chaudhary (“Jaggi”), Ranveer Singh (“83”), Suriya (“Jai Bhim”), Tovino Thomas (“Minnal Murali”), Vicky Kaushal (“Sardar Udham”) and Abhishek Bachchan (“Dasvi”) are vying for the trophy of best actor (male).

Bhatt is nominated in the best actor (female) category alongside Bhumi Pednekar for “Badhaai Do”, Deepika Padukone for “Gehraiyaan”, Konkona Sen Sharma for “The Rapist”, Lijomol Jose for “Jai Bhim”, Sreelekha Mitra for “Once Upon A Time In Calcutta”, and Shefali Shah and Vidya Balan for “Jalsa”.

Sen, Khan, Bhansali, and Sircar are the best director nominees along with Anmol Sidhu (“Jaggi”), Pan Nalin (“Chhello Show/Last Film Show”), Suresh Triveni (“Jalsa”) and T J Gnanavel (“Jai Bhim”).

“Once Upon A Time In Calcutta”, “Jaggi”, “Shankar’s Fairies”, “Boomba Ride”, and “Pedro” are among the eight titles competing to claim the prize of the best indie film.

“A Night of Knowing Nothing”, Payal Kapadia’s award-winning film; “Ayena (Mirror)”; “Kicking Balls”; “Ladies Only”; and “Urf (A.K.A)” by Geetika Narang Abbasi are the best documentary nominees.

Pakistani film “Joyland”, debutant Sadiq’s Jury Prize winner at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section; Bhutan’s “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”, which was one of the five contenders for best international film at this year’s Academy Awards; Sri Lankan film “The Newspaper” and “No Land’s Man” and “Rehana Maryam Noor”, both from Bangladesh, are in the running to win the best film from subcontinent award.

In the web series segment, “Mumbai Diaries 26/11” and “Aranyak” are the top nominees with three nods each.

Madhuri Dixit’s “Fame Game”, “Mai”, “Little Things” (Final Season) and “Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein” have also been nominated in the best series category.

Mohit Raina (“Mumbai Diaries 26/11”), Parambrata Chatterjee (“Aranyak”), Varun Mitra (“Guilty Minds”), Tahir Raj Bhasin (“Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein”), and Dhruv Sehgal (“Little Things” Final Season) are the best actor in a series nominees.

Sen Sharma has secured a second nomination with a best actress in a series for her role in “Mumbai Diaries 26/11”. Other nominees in the category are: Sakshi Tanwar (“Mai”), Madhuri Dixit (“Fame Game”), Mithila Palkar (“Little Things”), Raveena Tandon (“Aranyak”) and Shriya Pilgaonkar (“Guilty Minds”).

The film programming is more diverse than ever before “with over 100 films in 23 languages having been selected for the festival, the organisers said.

This year’s festival jury boasts of names like global award-winning film editor Jill Bilcock, one of Australia’s renowned actors Vince Colosimo, multi award-winning director Geoffrey Wright and multi award-winning filmmaker Nadia Tass.

Legendary cricketer Kapil Dev is the guest of honour at the gala.

-PTI