Mayank Singh from New Delhi won first prize for his short film ‘Irony’ in the 1st Blossom Short Film Festival held at Aligarh City on the 8th of March 2014. The Festival had been announced last year at the launch of Wiz Motion Studio on 28th December 2013. The festival then invited entries from all over the country over the period of 2 and half months. A total of 78 films were entered in the festival reported at the deadline which was March 3rd 2014. Founder of Wiz, Varun Mehta invited Television Actress and Artist Rashi Mal(Currently playing Gauri in Channel V’s Paanch) to be the head of the Jury and select the winners at the end of the final round to which she obliged. Rashi was reportedly chosen as a Judge based on her incredibly polished skills in the field of Arts.
Mayank Singh’s Irony happens to be based on Deforestation which is a strong issue. The film was featured in Short Films category. He draws two parallel words in his film where on one side Trees are being mercilessly cut and used for wood while on the other hand people feel proud on drawing it on Paper. The Second prize went to Nightmares by Abhishek Nishad from New Delhi for his film ‘Nightmares’. The film was put in Animation and VFX category. The film is somewhat of a Supernatural thriller about a Ghost. The third prize went to Aniket Pujari(City to be confirmed) for his film ‘I am not a beggar’. The film is about the aspirations of a poor child who is out to prove that he isn’t a beggar.
On her part of Judging the films, Rashi said that each film was evaluated on several criteria: the story/ concept, the presentation(visuals and music), entertainment value/emotional connect and the execution of the idea(treatment, acting etc). Varun expressed his happiness over the healthy number of participants taking part in the fest. He said - “For a beginning this is wonderful. This has given us a boost to do even better next year. Blossom Short Film Festival is likely to return next year.
