‘Balit’ from Iran declared Best Children Film on the Award Announcement Night
‘Mara Pappa Superhero’ a Gujarati Children Film saw a jam packed hall on the concluding day of AICFF
BILKULONLINE
Ahmedabad, Dec 11: The 5th edition of the Ahmedabad International Children Film Festival (AICFF) was held on 8th, 9th and 10th December, at the prestigious Ahmedabad Management Association. AICFF is a testament to the empowerment of young talent, creativity, and culture from across the globe, providing a powerful platform for the younger generation to voice their beliefs and inspire positive change in our society.
AICFF has consistently attracted worldwide attention and contributions from various content creators. Over the past four editions, the festival has seen more than 500 films from around the globe. This year, the festival has received an impressive 90-plus films from 24 countries, including entries from Iran, Italy, India, Turkey, China, Croatia, United States, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Taiwan, Switzerland, Singapore, Nepal, Japan, Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic, Canada, Brazil, and the Republic of Korea.
The festival was opened with the Persian language film ‘Balit’ and grand opening ceremony was attended by Bollywood actor Pavan Malhotra as the chief guest of the festival, along with Japanese film director Fumie Nishikawa has come all the way from Japan for three days of festival. The second day was a cinematic journey through films from various countries, complemented by enriching masterclasses with filmmaker Pankaj Roy, film critic Deepak Dua and our festival Director Manish Saini.
The festival concluded with the Gujarati language film ‘Mara Pappa Superhero’. Entire team of the film were present during the screening and audience has given the overwhelming response to the film. The closing ceremony and award night was attended by Master Manjunath (Malgudi Days) who shares, “I really appreciate the way AICFF was organised in Ahmedabad, I wish such kind of festival should happen all over India. All the parents, children and school should take part in it as its completely free and everyone should take benefit out of it. I was really privileged to be a part of the festival with jampacked audience on its closing day. Shiladitya Bora, Abhisekh Jain, Ajitpal Singh and Vishesh Agrawal were also present at the closing ceremony as the AICFF recognised the talent through the presentation of awards.
“Little Mitanshi Munjani, a class 5 student of St Xaviers while speaking to BILKULONLINE said it was such a joy to watch children’s films. I attended all three days and loved the films, even though I did not understand foreign films but I felt good.”
During these three days we have screened 27 films from various countries across the world and more than 7,000 people has attended the festival.
We are thankful to Gujarat Tourism for their support by promoting culture and cinematic tourism as a part of cinematic policy. Gujarat Tourism always promote and support such initiative. We are also grateful to Ahmedabad Management Association – AMA for the support throughout the festival.
AICFF announced 2023 Award Winners:
| Sr. no. | Award category | Winner | Feature Film | Country |
| 1 | Best Film | Balit | Balit | Iran, Islamic Republic of |
| 2 | Best Director | Morteza Rahimi | Balit | Iran, Islamic Republic of |
| 3 | Best Actor | Huda Moghadammanesh | Life & Life | Iran, Islamic Republic of |
| 4 | Best Child Actor (1) | Vishal Thakkar | Pravas | India |
| 5 | Best Child Actor (2) | Bhavya Sirohi | Mara Pappa Superhero | India |
| 6 | Best Story | Haizhou Wang | A Summer without Fireflies | China |
| 7 | Best background score | Nipun Cheema, Sutej Singh | Bus No. 7 | India |
| Sr. no. | Award category | Winner | Short Film | Country |
| 8 | Best Short Film | Shadow | Shadow | Ireland |
| 9 | Best Director Short Film | Fumie Nishikawa | Jomon | Japan |
| Sr. no. | Award category | Winner | Documentary Film | Country |
| 10 | Best Documentary Film | My Life: Child of the Wild | My Life: Child of the Wild | Peru |
| 11 | Best Director Documentary Film | Almudena Garcia-Parrado | My Life: Child of the Wild | Peru |
| Sr. no. | Award category | Winner | Animation Film | Country |
| 12 | Best Animation Film (1) | Happy birthday to me | Happy birthday to me | Korea, Republic of |
| 13 | Best Animation Film (2) | Stars in the rain | Stars in the rain | Iran, Islamic Republic of |
| Sr. no. | Award category | Winner | Student Film | Country |
| 14 | Best Student Film (1) | Qi | Qi | China |
| 15 | Best Student Film (2) | Tasveer | Tasveer | India |
| Sr. no. | Award category | Winner | Film | Country |
| 16 | Golden Kite Award | Chidiakhana | Chidiakhana (Feature) | India |
| 17 | Silver Kite Award | For the Sake of Ava | For the Sake of Ava | Iran, Islamic Republic of |
| 18 | Bronze Kite Award | The Old Young Crow | The Old Young Crow (Short) | Japan |