Bollywood Trade News Network

Osian's-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema today announced the winners of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards. The Osian's Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Cinema, instituted this year is being awarded to eminent film maker Mrinal Sen while the Aruna Vasudev Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Cinema will be conferred on Jose "Pete" F Lacaba. The awards will be presented at the 10th Anniversary of the Film Festival to be held in New Delhi from 10-20 July 2008. Additionally, a grand curtain raiser to the festival will be held in Mumbai on 13th and 14th June, 2008.

Mrinal Sen is one of India's most acclaimed filmmakers and a pioneer of the alternative cinema movement. In a prolific career spanning almost five decades, Sen has directed feature films, short films and documentaries of varying content and cine-aesthetics, his works being permeated by his engagement with social issues and his acute political awareness, always exhibiting a deep analytical mind and humanist ideology. Recipient of the Padma Bhushan, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest distinction given to an Indian filmmaker by the Government of India, Mrinal Sen has also been honoured with awards at numerous international film festivals in India and abroad.

Jose F Lacaba (a.k.a. Pete), poet, journalist, editor, translator, and screenwriter, is a bilingual writer who writes in both English and Filipino. He is the author of six poetry collections in Filipino and a collection of journalistic reportage in English, Days of Disquiet, Nights of Rage. He is also the editor of a number of books, including The Films of ASEAN and Emmanuel Lacaba's Salvaged Poems and Salvaged Prose. He has written the screenplays of award-winning feature films that have been shown at various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice and Toronto. His screenplay credits include Jaguar, Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim, Orapronobis, Sister Stella L., Eskapo, Segurista and Rizal sa Dapitan. Pete Lacaba is also the recipient of the Centennial Honors for the Arts for his significant contributions to culture and the arts in the twentieth century.

This year Osian's-Cinefan has announced over Rs. 1 Crore (approx. USD 250, 000) in Prize Money for its Competition Sections and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented Rs. 8 lakhs (approx. USD 20,000) each. Latika Padgaonkar, Joint Festival Director, Osian's Cinefan says, "We are delighted to honour two eminent personalities from the world of cinema. Both have contributed in a seminal way to the seventh art and both have placed on their works an individual and creative stamp".