Double win for Konkona at MAMI

It was a double delight for Konkona Sen Sharma as her maiden directorial venture “A Death in the Gunj” brought her the award of Best Indian Filmmaker for 2016 and another feature film starring her in lead role got the honour of Best Film on Gender Equality at the 18th Mumbai International Film Festival.

Konkona's film, a suspense-thriller starring Tilottama Shome, Om Puri and Tanuja among others, also took the honour of being the opening film of the eight-day festival which concluded on Thursday night.

The Best Film on Gender Equality was awarded to “Lipstick Under My Burkha” directed by Alankrita Shrivastava which has Konkona along with Ratna Pathak, Aahana Kumar and others in the cast.

In India Gold category, the top prize, called Golden Gateway went to “Lady of the Lake”. Its makers will receive Rs 25 lakh as cash prize while the Silver Gateway went to “The Narrow Path” helmed by Satish and Santosh Babusenan. They will be given Rs 15 lakh.

In the International competition category, “Diamond Island” received the Golden Gateway award, while the special jury prize went to “Everything Else” by Nataloa Almada. “Godless”, helmed by Ralitza Petrov, got the Silver Gateway prize.

“The Salesman” by Asghar Farhadi of Iran won the Audience Choice award and American drama film “Manchester by the Sea”, directed by Kenneth Lonergan, closed the festival, which screened 175 movies, including features, documentaries and shorts from 54 countries.