MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2019: Prateek Vats' Eeb Allay Ooo! Takes Top Prize; Full List of Winners

SoJo

Editor

posted on 5 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

36
views

The 21st edition of the Jio MAMI Film Festival closed Thursday night with the top prize going to Prateek Vats' Eeb Allay Ooo!.

The Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival crowned its winners Thursday evening at a grand ceremony in Mumbai. Prateek Vats' Eeb Allay Ooo! took home the Golden Gateway top prize, while Gitanjali Rao won the second place Silver Gateway prize for Bombay Rose.

Eeb Allay Ooo! is the story about a young migrant who battles hordes of monkeys in the heart of New Delhi as a contractual monkey repeller – a newly created government job to tackle the monkeys who have been further emboldened by the recent ban on the use of captive langurs - their natural enemy.

The film also received the young critics' choice award besides earning the special jury mention for its lead actor, Shardul Bhardwaj in the India Gold section.

Upon receiving the prize, Vats thanked the entire team of Eeb Allay Ooo! and said, "I will cherish this for the rest of my life."

Meanwhile, Gitanjali Rao's Bombay Rose, that explores the ruthlessness of a society, and Achal Mishra's Gamak Ghar, which observes one house as it ages and falls to neglect, jointly won the Manish Acharya award for being the new voice in Indian cinema.

Kislay's Aise Hi, about a widow who wants to live by herself, won the Films Critic Guild award and also received the special jury mention for its lead Mohini Sharma.

The Grand Jury prize in the India Gold section for screenwriting went to Saurav Rai for Nimtoh, which revolves around a 10-year-old Tashi and his ageing grandma living as tenants to a wealthy family in a remote mountain village in Darjeeling.

On the occasion, actress Deepika Padukone, the Chairperson of MAMI, said, "First of all, I managed to learn a lot in the last couple of months, I was involved with MAMI. I was fortunate to see one film out of the 190 films screened at the festival. My takeaway from the experience was the audience, people were just passionate about cinema. Some related because they are aspiring directors, actors, but some of them just pure audience who are passionate about great movies. The festival was impeccably organised."

In International Competition, Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska's documentary Honeyland won the Golden Gateway award. While Rodd Rathjen's Buoyancy won the Silver Gateway prize. Buoyancy tells the story of Chakra, a 14-year-old Cambodian boy, who secretly leaves home in search of a better life, but is sold to a Thai broker and enslaved on a fishing trawler.

The Grand Jury prize went to Suhaib Gasmelbari's Talking About Trees. While Amjad Abu Alala's You Will Die at Twenty and Carlo Sironi's Sole bagged the special jury mention.

Big winners for the Dimensions Mumbai category included Akshay Sarjerao Danavale's Batti which took home Golden Gateway, and Shubham Sanap's Attention which won the Silver Gateway.

In addition, the closing film Saand Ki Aankh, starring Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar, was met with standing ovation and shouts of "Bravo!" at its conclusion.

Here’s the full list of winners at MAMI 2019:

INDIA GOLD

Golden Gateway – Prateek Vats’ Eeb Allay Ooo!

Silver Gateway – Gitanjali Rao’s Bombay Rose

Grand Jury Prize – Saurav Rai for Screenwriting (Nimtoh)

Special Jury Mention – Shardul Bhardwaj, Best Actor (Male) for Eeb Allay Ooo!

Special Jury Mention – Mohini Sharma, Best Actor (Female) for Aise Hi

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Golden Gateway – Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland

Silver Gateway – Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy

Grand Jury Prize – Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees

Special Jury Mention – Carlo Sironi’s Sole