'Sita Ramam', 'Agra' win top awards at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

Telugu period romance Sita Ramam, Vikramaditya Motwane's show Jubilee and Kanu Behl's independent feature Agra won the top honours at the 2023 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) Awards here on Friday.

The annual event honours the remarkable talents of the Indian film fraternity, spanning across movies and streaming series.

Bollywood star Rani Mukerji for Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway and Agra actor Mohit Agarwal took home the top acting honours, while Sita Ramam was declared the Best Film.

Agra was given the Best Indie Film and Kannada filmmaker Prithvi Konanur won the Best Director.

The 2023 IFFM awards not only paid tribute to the excellence achieved in the past year but also showcased the dynamic and evolving landscape of Indian entertainment celebrating the diversity of the films and content from the subcontinent.

In the series category, Motwane's period piece Jubilee got the Best Series trophy, the Best Performance (male) went to Vijay Varma for Dahaad, and the Best Performance (female) was won by Rajshri Deshpande for Trial By Fire.

The honorary awards went to the Netflix movie Darlings (Equality in Cinema Award) and Pathaan (People’s Choice Award).

Karan Johar was honoured for completing 25 years as a filmmaker in the film industry and Kartik Aaryan was given the Rising Global Superstar of Indian Cinema trophy.

Sita Ramam actress Mrunal Thakur received the Diversity in Cinema award, while Bhumi Pednekar got the Disruptor award.

The Rainbow Stories Award went to filmmaker Onir for Pine Cone.

To Kill A Tiger received the Best Documentary award.

The 14th edition of IFFM runs till August 20.