It was filmmaker Mari Selvaraj’s Pariyerum Perumal that bagged the best Tamil feature film award at the 16th Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF), as part of the Tamil Film Competition section.
An award was presented to the director who along with the producer of the social-drama Pa Ranjith received it.
The closing ceremony of CIFF held in the city on Thursday during which jury member and director Gayathri of Vikram Vedha fame said that 12 films had been short-listed for the awards and the decision to pick the film was unanimous by all three who were part of the jury.
Following Pariyerum Perumal, Premkumar’s 96, starring Vijay Sethupathi, was adjudged the runner-up.
Director Vetrimaaran received a special jury award for making Vada Chennai and producing Annanukku Jai.
With about 150 films being screened, the CIFF’s this year edition commenced on 13 December.
Speaking about the event president of the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation which is organising the festival S Kannan said, “We had more than 3,500 registrations this year which was a record in itself and were very pleased with the response for the film festival.”
Later when Minister for Information and Publicity Kadambur Raju addressed the event, he said, “The State government was working with the Tamil film industry and ensuring that they work in coordination.”
He informed that the Tamilnadu government will be giving away the state awards for films in January close to the Pongal festival in 2019.
The ceremony was to be held in November this year but had got postponed due to landfall of Gaja in Cauvery delta districts.