10th Chennai International Film Festival

The 10th Chennai International Film Festival concluded yesterday and Amitabh Bachchan presided over the closing ceremony. The week long festival showcased around 150 films from all over the world. Twelve Tamil films were screened during the festival. At the end of the function, best Tamil films were announced and the creators were given awards.

Highlights of CIFF

Balaji Shaktivel's critically acclaimed Vazhakku Enn 18/9 was adjudged the best film. Sattaai and Pizza were the first and second runners up respectively. Mouna Guru was given the 'Special Mention' award.

One of the major highlights of the festival was the screening of 'Aaranya Kaandam' on 19th December. Directed by debutant Thiagarajan Kumararaja, the movie did not achieve box office success when it was released last year but was considered as a "Neo-noir cult classic" by many. Movie buffs and critics have been trying hard to get the movie re-released. While the re-release plan is still under consideration, they were able to watch the movie one more time on the big screen. The show was packed with enthusiastic fans as well as people from the film industry and the movie was given a standing ovation. It is worth mentioning that the movie won two national awards under 'Best Editing' and 'Best First Film of a Director' categories.