***‘Once Upon a Time in Calcutta’ bags top honour at 2022 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

PTI

Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Once Upon a Time in Calcutta bagged the top award of Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA). The festival’s landmark 20th Anniversary edition, which returned to in-person screenings and events this year, was held from April 28 to May 1.

During the closing ceremony, Anmol Sidhu’s Jaggi won the inaugural Uma da Cunha Award for best feature film debut, as well as the Audience Choice Award for best feature. Irfana Majumdar’s Shankar’s Fairies, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival, received an honorable mention. The feature films jury included Lakshmi Iyengar, Smriti Mundhra and Jonathan Wysocki. In the short film category, the Grand Jury Prize went to Amrita Bagchi’s Succulent, while Megha Ramaswamy’s Lalanna’s Song and Akanksha Cruczynski-directed Close Ties to Home Country received honourable mentions.

The short film jury, which included Geetika Lizardi, Sid Mehra and Carey Williams, awarded Salar Pashtoonyar’s Bad Omen the Grand Jury Prize for best short in the inaugural Spotlight on South Asia section. The Audience Choice Award for best short film went to 7 Star Dinosor Entertainment by director Vaishali Naik.