On Saturday, Chaitanya Tamhane won the prestigious Best Screenplay Award for his film The Disciple at the closing ceremony of the Venice Film Festival. He lost the Golden Lion to the movie Nomadlan, which stars Frances McDormand. This is also the second award for the Indian film at the festival, the other being International Critics Prize by the FIPRESCI.
Tamhane in his official statement after the win said he wanted to dedicate the award to all musicians, teachers, authors and researchers who ushered him into the world of Indian Classical music and made writing the film possible for him. The film is also the only Indian film to be selected among the official selection at the Toronto film festival. He had also bagged the Lion of the Future Award at Venice Film Festival for his 2014 Marathi film, Court.
The jury that presented Chaitanya for the Best Screenplay Award was led by Cate Blanchett, winner of the Oscar for best actress twice. It also had British director Joanna Hogg, French actress Ludivine Sagnier, Australian director Veronika Franz, German director Christian Petzold, American actor Matt Dillon and Italian writer Nicola Lagioia.
The director was accompanied to the award night by Vivek Gomber, producer of the film The Disciple, who said that he is grateful to the jury for the award and also proud of Chaitanya Tamhane for his achievement which made him win the award amongst the stalwarts of contemporary films across the world.
