Ranveer Singh, and Shefali Shah were among the many celebrated actors who made the cut for top honours at The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2022.
The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, after much fanfare, announced the winners of the coveted awards for its 13th edition. This year the festival has an impressive lineup of films, short films, and documentaries representing cinema from India and neighbouring.

Ranveer Singh bagged the award in the ‘Best actor’ category. After winning the award for his performance in ’83’, Ranveer said, “I thank the jury members at IFFM for bestowing me with the Best Actor of the year for my role as Kapil Dev in the film 83, one of the most loved films in my career. It’ll always be one of the most cherished films in my filmography. But more than the accolades it’s the process of making the film that I cherish the most. I am thankful to Kabir Sir for giving me this opportunity, for guiding me and for inspiring me. I share this honour with the cast and crew of 83 who are so dear to me, and with whom I share a very very warm bond and I dedicate this honour to Kapil Dev on whom this story is based, a fine bunch of gentlemen who dared to dream and through their efforts and achievements showed us that we Indians can be the best in the world.”

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Shefali Shah, on the other hand, bagged the ‘Best Actor – Female’ award for her brilliant performance in the film ‘Jalsa’.
Actor Vaani Kapoor was awarded with Disruptor in Cinema award for her path-breaking performance in ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’.
“It’s so special and kind of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and Mitu to recognise such a film and giving so much dignity, respect and love and accepted it and to have a great inclusion of Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui in a film festival. It feels so special and surreal,” said Vaani.

Abhishek Bachchan also received a special honour – Leadership in Cinema Award. Abhishek Bachchan said while accepting the award, “I thank IFFM for giving me the Leadership in Cinema award. I am extremely ecstatic about being considered for this prestigious award by the Victorian Government and the film festival. Even though this award is not for the best actor but I am very much certain to come back to the festival soon enough for the best actor award too as I am certain I’ll soon get it.”

Shoojit Sircar also bagged the award in the ‘Best Director’ category for his work in ‘Sardar Udham’, along with Aparna Sen who won the award for ‘The Rapist’.

’83’ won the ‘Best Film’ award while Kapil Dev was honoured with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’.

Check out the full list of Awards here:

Best Documentary : A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia

Best Actor in a Series : Mohit Raina for ‘Mumbai Diaries 26/11’

Best Actress in a Series : Sakshi Tanwar for ‘MAI’

Best Series : ‘Mumbai Diaries 26/11’ by Nikkhil Advani

Best Indie Film : ‘Jaggi’ directed by Anmol Sidhu (Punjabi)

Best Director : Jointly won by Shoojit Sircar for ‘Sardar Udham’ and Aparna Sen for ‘The Rapist’

Best Actor : Ranveer Singh for ’83’

Best Actress : Shefali Shah for ‘Jalsa’

Best Film : ’83’ directed by Kabir Khan

Equality in Cinema :The team of ‘Jalsa’ directed by Suresh Triveni

Disruptor in Cinema Award : Vaani Kapoor for ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’

Lifestyle Achievement Award : Kapil Dev

Leadership in Cinema Award : Abhishek Bachchan

The festival was attended by various dignitaries of the Victorian government in Melbourne at the iconic Palais theatre. A plethora of Indian actors and artistes who were part of the celebration in person during the festival were Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Tamannaah Bhatia, Vaani Kapoor, Kabir Khan, Shefali Shah, Shoojit Sircar, Anurag Kashyap, Nikkhil Advani, Sona Mohapatra, Suresh Triveni, former cricketer and ex-captain of Indian cricket team, Kapil Dev. The awards night was hosted by Rithvik Dhanjani.