Thiruvananthapuram, March 25 : “Pebbles” (Koozhangal) directed by Vinothraj PS received both the Jury and popular Audience Poll Award. Produced by Nayanthara K, Vignesh Shivan, it revolves around a real incident of director Vinothraj’s family which inspired him to direct the film. Costa Rica’s “Clara Sola” directed by Nathalie Alvarez Mesen and produced by Nima Yousefi bagged the ‘Suvarna Chakoram’ (Golden Crow Pheasant Award) for the Best Film at the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) here on Friday. Argentina’s “Camila Comes Out Tonight” directed by Ines Barrionuevo bagged the Rajata Chakoram (Silver Crow Pheasant Award) for Best Director. Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal gave away the awards at the IFFK concluding ceremony held at the Nishagandhi Auditorium here. The “FFSI KR Mohanan Award” for Best Debut Director from India was shared by “I’m Not the River Jhelum” (Be Ches Ne Veth) directed by Prabhash Chandra and “Forbidden” (Nishiddho) directed by Tara Ramanujan. The NETPAC Award for the Best Asian Film went to Pebbles (Koozhangal) by Vinothraj PS and the NETPAC Award for the Best Malayalam Film to “The Arbit Documentation of an Amphibian Hunt” (Aavasavyuham) by Krishand. The FIPRESCI Award for Best International Film went to “You Resemble Me” by Dina Amer and the FIPRESCI Award for Best Malayalam Film went to “Aavasavyuham” as well. In the International category, special mention for performances went to “Camila Comes Out Tonight”; “Let it be morning” directed by Eran Kolirin (Israel, France). “Pebbles” which won hearts and critical acclaim took the director around the globe, as it was released internationally under the translated title Pebbles. The 2021 Tamil drama film directed by debutant Vinothraj, featured music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography by Jeya Parthipan and Vignesh Kumulai and was edited by Ganesh Siva. The film was screened at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam held in Netherlands on February 4, 2021, where it received the Tiger Award at the festival. It was selected as the Indian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, but was not nominated. It was screened at 52nd International Film Festival of India in ‘Indian Panorama’ section, feature film category, where it won the awards. For his film, Vinothraj, who used to own a DVD shop, spent a lot of time looking for an arid landscape, which was required for the story and was finally loacted in Arittapati, near Melur in Madurai. The whole film was shot at Arittapati in 30 days.The mountains in the 13 villages where the film was shot are thousands of years old and the villages which Vinoth explored, as a part of the story, too developed on its own. The biggest challenge of shooting the film was the humid weather, for which he stated: “As sunlight was crucial for the story, we would start shooting every day after 10am and wind up by 3pm. We would watch the rushes in the evening and that would give us the motivation for the next day.” The Suvarna Chakoram includes a cash prize worth Rs 20,00,000; while the Rajatha Chakoram, awarded to the Best Director, includes a Rs 4,00,000 cash prize. The Rajatha Chakoram Best Debut Director Award carries a cash prize of Rs 3,00,000. The cash prize for the Audience Prize Rajata Chakoram is Rs 2,00,000. The FFSI KR Mohanan Endowment Award fetches the winner a cash prize of Rs 1,00,000. DS ING