The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) announced the winners for its 12th edition, which was held virtually at 12:00 noon on August 20, Friday. The list of winners included a number of recipients from the south Indian film industry. Actor Suriya, who played the lead role in the Sudha Kongara directorial Soorarai Pottru, won the award for Best Performance Male (Feature Films) and the movie was conferred with the Best Feature Film award, while actor Samantha Akkineni, who made her Over-the-Top (OTT) debut with Amazon Prime Video’s hit web series The Family Man 2 bagged the award under the category of Best Performance Female (series). The critically acclaimed web series, which started streaming on June 4 this year, featured Manoj Bajpayee, Priyamani and Samantha in the lead.  Though many appreciated the series, it was also slammed by a section of the Tamil community for misrepresenting certain aspects of the Eelam struggle. 

Starring actors Suriya, Aparna Balamurali, Krishna Kumar, Urvashi, Karunas and Paresh Rawal among others in pivotal roles, Soorarai Pottru was submitted to the Academy Awards and enlisted as one among the 366 films that were eligible for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The movie is partially based on Simply Fly, the biography of Captain GR Gopinath, the founder of Air Deccan. Actors Benjamin Daimary, Jitin Puthenchery, Harish Khanna, Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi were also nominated for the award of Best Actor.  

Known to be one of the largest film festivals in Australia, the 12th edition of IFFM, which was conducted virtually this year, had a line-up of various feature and short films across the country. Critically acclaimed Malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen bagged an award under the category of Equality in Cinema. The Jeo Baby directorial The Great Indian Kitchen, which stars actors Suraj Venjarmoodu and Nimisha Sajayan, premiered on Malayalam OTT platform Neestream and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Praises poured in from all quarters for its well-written characters. Critics as well as fans heaped praises on the movie for its sensitive representation of gender and patriarchal issues in Indian households. Actor Nimisha Sajayan received honorary mention in IFFM for her role in The Great Indian Kitchen.  

The director of Kannada film Pinki Elli Prithvi Konanur received the Honorary Mention as Best Director. The thriller first premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2020 and later released on November 8, 2020, in India. Actor Vidya Balan was conferred with the award for Best Female actor in a feature film for her performance in the recently released film Sherni. Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi was honored with the Diversity in Cinema Award presented by LaTrobe University.  

Here is the list of recipients of other awards at IFFM: 

Best Director - Anurag Basu for Ludo 

Best Series - Mirzapur Season 2 

Best Actor in a Series - Manoj Bajpayee for The Family Man 2 

Equality in Cinema (Short Film) - Sheer Qorma 

Best Indie Film - Fire in the Mountains 

Disruptor Award - Sanal Kumar Sasidharan 

Best Documentary Film – Shut Up Sona