New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh has won the most film-friendly state award at the National Film Awards announced here.
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh won Best Film (Special Mention). The 68th National Film Awards were announced at a reception here.
“The Most Cinema-Friendly Award (Special Mention) goes to Uttarakhand and UP. The Most Cinema-Friendly State of Cinema goes to Madhya Pradesh,” said Neerja Sekhar, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Madhya Pradesh also received the award earlier.
A 10-member jury headed by director-producer Vipul Shah met with Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Friday morning to submit their report on the 68th National Film Awards.
This year, there are 50 categories with over 300 feature films and 150 non-feature films competing for the awards. There are 30 different languages in the movies.
Besides President Shah, the jury members included Cinematographer Dharam Gulati, Nationally acclaimed Bengali actor Sreelekha Mukherjee, Cinematographer GS Bhaskar, A Karthikraaja, VN Aditya, Viji Thampi, Sanjeev Rattan, S Thangadurai and Nishigandha.
Producer-director Vipul Shah told ANI, “It’s been encouraging to see the kind of response that’s been received and the number of films we’ve been able to see. And it was a very difficult COVID time during which these films were made or are in the process of being made.”
Chitrartha Singh, who led the non-feature jury, said: “We were able to review almost 140 non-feature films, including documentaries, and it’s amazing to see the type of content that came out, in especially in areas like the northeast.
Journalist Anant Vijay chaired the Best Film Writing category. (ANI)
