The 13th Film Bazaar, an annual four-day market organised by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) on the sidelines of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), concluded on Sunday with Natesh Hegde’s Pedro and Ajitpal Singh’s Swizerland winning the Prasad Lab DI Award and Moviebuff Appreciation Award in the Work-in-Progress (WIP) lab section.
The awards were decided by mentors of the WIP lab, including producer Philippa Campbell, film critic Derek Malcolm, artistic director of PYIFF, Pingyao, Marco Mueller, producer Olivia Stewart, editor Lizi Gelber, and editor Jacques Comets.
From the incomplete films in the Film Bazaar Recommends section, Prithvi Konanur’s Pinki Elli? won the Prasad Lab DI Award and Moviebuff Appreciation Award. The jury members included programmer of Hong Kong International Film Festival, Kiki Fung, artistic director of Film Columbia, Laurence Kardish, and festival director of Sydney Film Festival, Nashen Moodley.
Pushpendra Singh’s Laila Aur Satt Geet won the VKAAO WIP Lab Award, which includes a certificate from VKAAO and a free theatrical distribution deal with PVR Cinemas.
The VKAAO Film Bazaar Recommends Award, chosen by an audience vote, went to two films — Achal Mishra’s Gamak Ghar for a film by a debut director and Rajat Kapoor’s rk/rkay for a film by non-debut filmmaker. The award comes with a certificate from VKAAO and a 75% discount on theatrical distribution. “This year we had 268 projects across more than 30 languages at various stages of progress,” said T.C.A. Kalyani, managing director of NFDC.
Sunday also witnessed the India première of Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 Palme d'Or winner, Parasite, at the 50th IFFI. Opening to a packed auditorium in Panaji, the South Korean film is a sharp takedown of a capitalist society, through an evocative satire about a working-class family. The funny and dark drama serves as a brutal reminder of the dark side of late-stage capitalism and ‘trickle-down economy’, which alienates the working class and pushes them to the margins of society, only to rebel.
The film is South Korea’s official entry to the 92nd Academy Awards, and is already being counted among the front runners.
