KARACHI, Dec 22: The third KaraFilm Festival concluded on Sunday night with a glittering awards ceremony, held at the Finance and Trade Centre, in which popular youth bands performed, says a press release.

It adds that in attendance at the ceremony were Indian film- makers Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt as well as a number of film- makers and the celebrities of the film and television world from Pakistan. Actress Sania Saeed conducted the ceremony proceedings. The KaraFilm Festival ran for 10 days during which over 80 films, including features, documentaries and shorts, were screened.

The Bangladeshi film Matir Moina (The clay bird) won top honours bagging the award for the Best Feature Film, Best Cinematography and Best Musical Score. The film, which has also won the International Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, was directed by Tareque Masud and dealt with the story of a boy sent to study in a religious Madressah during the gathering storm of the independence movement in the former East Pakistan.

Pakistani film-maker Sabiha Sumar’s Khamosh Pani also walked away with three awards, including the Best Actress Award in a Leading Role for Indian actress Kirron Kher, Best Screenplay and a Special Jurors’ Selection awards. The film, which recently won the Grand Prize at the Locarno Film Festival, received its premiere at the KaraFilm Festival and was widely appreciated for its sensitive story of a woman caught between her past and rising forces of extremism in General Ziaul Haq’s Pakistan.

Among the other big winners on Sunday night were the British film “In this world”, a fictionalized retelling of two Afghan boys’ land journey from Peshawar to London. The film won the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the Best Editing Award as well as an award for the Best Direction for its director Michael Winterbottom.

The Best Documentary Award was jointly awarded to Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine” and Bombay-based documentarian Anand Patwardan’s “War and Peace”.

Amir Bazaz and Meenu Gaur’s “Paradise on a river of hell”, a personalized documentary about the strife in Kashmir was given the Special Recognition for Documentary Award.

The other awards included a Special Recognition Award for Acting for Pakistani actress Ayesha Alam for her work in “Daira” — an adaptation of the best-selling novel “Moth Smoke” written by Mohsin Hamid.

In addition, Indian actress Deepti Naval won the award for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in Somnath Sen’s “Leela” while Pakistani actor Arif Hasan won the Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his cameo role as a paanwala in Khalid Ahmed’s “Ghar ki Talaash”. Director Shakil Malick received a Special Recognition Award for his short feature “Ragoun mein Siyahee”. Adnan Malik’s short “Bijli” won the Best Short Award.

The KaraFilm Society, organizers of the KaraFilm Festival, bestowed two lifetime achievement awards on actor Nadeem and pioneering documentary film-maker Khalique Ibrahim Khalique, both of whom were present to receive their awards.

In addition, the KaraFilm Society also honoured Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt with KaraFilm Society Awards for their support to the KaraFilm Festival and for bringing the world premiere of their film “Paap” to the festival.

The jury for the awards consisted of publisher Hameed Haroon, journalist Talat Aslam, actress Nadia Jamil, film critic Omar A. Khan, producer Ali Faisal Zaidi, artist Shehrbano Hussain, writer Ajmal Kamal, advertising executive Mujahida Hasan and film-makers Farjad Nabi and Daniyal Ali Khan.