Mamata urges world filmmakers to collaborate with Bengali cinema
The Statesman | 14 November 2025
After a week’s entertainment for cinephiles, with 215 handpicked movies from 39 countries across the globe, the 31 Kolkata International Film Festival ended today.
Cuban film, To The West in Zapata by filmmaker David Bim won the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for the best film for ‘Innovation In Moving Images’ in international competition category along with a cash prize of Rs 51 Lakh.
The film festival was a double bonanza for the filmmakers, who also bagged the FIPRESCI Award from the critics. The third Award for Special Jury was given to Croatian film Beautiful Evening and Beautiful Day by director Ivona Juka.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the awards for the Innovation in Moving Images’ in international competition category. Asserting universal brotherhood between West Bengal and the guests from various countries of the globe, Miss Banerjee said, “Though you are my guests, I consider you as brothers and sisters.” She invited the international filmmakers for joint ventures with Bengal and asked them to come back to the festival and to the annual business summit Bengal Global Business Summit. “You have to come next year also. Please come here with a vision and mission. Bengal has lots of talent. We have seaside, deep forests, waterbodies, you can get everything from Bengal. …Hollywood is very famous and Bollywood is also famous as it has capacity and is the financial capital. But Bengal is the cultural capital of India. So if you jointly work with Tollywood, I can assure you that it can deliver world’s best films. They need your encouragement and inspiration.”
She further added: “In the world we are one. There might be some black or white people. Some people even might belong to some countries. But our culture is unity in diversity. We don’t believe in divisive policies. We believe that we are united and we love the world. We want to see a peaceful world. ”
The team of eminent filmmakers from various corners of the world as jurists chose Lalith Ratnayake from Sri Lanka as ‘The Best Director’ for the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award’ under the category of ‘Innovation in Moving Images’ in international competition.
The Hiralal Sen Memorial Award on Indian Language’s Films category, which is another important section of awards for the Best Film Special Mention was given to Kangbo Aloti while filmmaker, Pradip KurBah’ was declared winner of the ‘Best Director’ award for his film Ha Lyngkha Bneng. The third award in the section for the Best Film was given to Chhora Jastai by director Tribeny Ray.
The Bengali Panorama’ section with seven films in Bengali language was given to the film Porshi by director Chandrasish Ray, bagging the best film title in the section.
The winner of the Asian Select-NETPAC section was given to the film Victoria by Indian director Sivaranjani. The film, according to the filmmaker, was made with the Kerala state government as a part of women empowerment.
The award for the Special Jury for short films was given to two short films, Kuhase ki Geet and Aparthiba while the best short film under ‘Competition on Indian Short Films’ was given to the film, Nyingma, Through Her Eyes.
Bijoyee Japoner Patkatha by Joydeep Banerjee was announced as the winner of the award for the best documentary film under the Competition on Indian Documentary Films’ category.
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Eminent filmmaker Goutam Ghose was awarded the FIPRESCO Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to cinema. Remembering his wife, who passed away three week ago, the director of acclaimed films like Paar and Patang attributed his success to his late wife with teary eyes.
Talking about 31 KIFF, he said, “It was a great festival. The 31 edition was a big success and footfalls at the theatres were unprecedented.”
Notably, Mr Ghose was conferred the Banga Bhushan Lifetime Achievement award in 2012. He was also awarded the Knighthood of the Star of the Italian Solidarity in 2006.