OneWorld.net (U.S.)

“Wild Dog Diaries” by Senani Hegde bagged the Best of CMS VATAVARAN 2007 Festival. “Earth Calling - Episode Coorg” by Rita Banerjee and Shilpi Sharma won the “Delhi Chief Minister’s Award for the Best Documentary in Environment Conservation”. “Tiger - The Death Chronicles” by Krishnendu Bose won the coveted CMS VATAVARAN award in the Wildlife Conservation category.

Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt Sheila Dikshit presided over the concluding ceremony. Mr Siddhartha Behura, Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, was present at the Award Ceremony. The Best of Festival was given a cash prize of Rs.1,50,000/- and a citation. Cash prizes in the other awards range from Rs. 25,000/- to Rs. 1,00,000/- . Present on the occasion was Mr. Carl Gustaf Sevensson, Development Corporation, SIDA and Mr. Dominique Dreyer, Ambassador of Switzerland to India. Dr. Karan Singh, President of Indian Council of Cultural Relations and Rajya Sabha member was the Guest of Honour.

CMS VATAVARAN film festival biennially awards/recognizes films in all genres (documentaries, docu-dramas, narratives, shorts, advertising campaigns, public service announcements, new media, etc.), which inform, educate, foster knowledge, understanding and action on environment, wildlife issues or other socially relevant environment themes. The awards are given to the productions that most effectively and creatively use the medium of moving images to advance appreciation of the natural world.

New initiatives in the Festival 2007 include the recognition of achievements in technical excellence, introduction of the International Competitive Category, honoring outstanding documentaries on the natural world or conservation themes and the FEJI Young Environmental Journalist Print and Broadcast Award.

Forum of Environmental Journalists of India and CMS Academy Award for Young Environmental Journalist (Print and Broadcast) went to Amar Jyoti and Bahar Dutt respectively. Awards for technical excellence went to Senani Hedge’s “Wild Dog Dairies” for the Best Story Telling, Suresh Elamon’s “Angels in Tigerland” for Best Cinematography and Umesh Aggarwal’s “The Whistle Blowers” for Best Editing.

This year, looking at the films documenting behaviour of very rare animals, CMS announced the Revelation Award, which went to – ‘Cherub of the Mist’ by Naresh Bedi, for ‘a beautifully shot film on the rare and elusive Red Panda.’ In the Children’s Category the award was won by “Shruti and Kuki”. The film that impressed the jury into giving it a special jury award for marvelous ethnographic picturisation was “Riding Solo to the Top of the World” directed by Gaurv Jani.

This year there were four jury special mention awards. Kalpana Subramaniam’s “Turtle in a Soup” was mentioned for bringing into focus the role of fresh water turtles in keeping the water bodies pollution free with the hope that the policy makers will take notice and help in the conservation of this species. Another film, “In the Pink” was mentioned for pointing to the existence of wild life even in a metropolis like Mumbai. Gurmeet Sapal’s “Leopards in the Lurch” and Nandita Jain’s “Myth about You” also won the jury Special Mention Award.

This year the film festival attracted an unprecedented number of 275 entries from independent filmmakers, production houses, animators, broadcast networks, organizations, journalists, students, educational institutions, etc. 72 nominated films from both Indian and international categories were screened during five days apart from the panorama on climate change films which included Happy Feet, The Day after Tomorrow and The Inconvenient Truth.

The entries went through a 2-tier selection process - first a rigorous and transparent 3-day screening by a 25-Nomination Jury of eminent personalities from various walks of life. Then a 5-member Final Jury, chaired by noted filmmaker, Mr. Shyam Benegal, selected the winners from national nominated films in ten categories. Dr. B C Choudhury, Professor, Endangered Species Management Department, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Mr. Alphonse Roy, Cinematographer, Chennai, Ms. Revathy Menon, Actor and Director, Chennai, Prof. C. R. Babu, Emeritus Scientist, Dept. of Botany, Delhi University, were the other final jury members.

The award-winning films will be taken to various cities across the country for public screening during 2008 as part of CMS Vatavaran Travels, the touring edition of the film festival. CMS has reiterated a Film Archives Service for anyone to avail these films, at its campus in New Delhi, all year round.

CMS Vatavaran is an initiative of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) towards encouraging young film makers to produce on environment and wildlife issues facing the country and also to convince the television channels to show case these films with equally consistent concerns. The festival is supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). A host of eminent personalities are associated in organizing of the festival. Shri Ajay Maken chaired the Steering Committee of Vatavaran 2007.

Source: www.cmsvatavaran.org