Winning debut
Sweeping all six nominations, student films made by the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) have won top prizes during the IDPA Awards 2009 declared on Saturday. FTII Diploma film Narmeen (directed by Dipti Gogna) has been honoured with Gold Award for Excellence in Short Fiction (Professional category). Narmeen has also bagged the Gold Award for Excellence in Sound Design (Fiction) by Shri Manik Batra. Devendra Golatkar has won the Gold Award for Excellence in Cinematography for his outstanding work in Who Thought of the Little Boy while Saikat Ray has also won the Gold Award for Excellence in Editing (Fiction) for his diploma film Dhin Tak Dha. While Arunima Sharma has won Silver Award for Best Documentary for In Transit, Debashish Medhekar bagged the Certificate of Merit for Best Short Fiction (under 30 minute) for FTII Diploma film Swayambhu Sen Foresees His End.

Glamorous game
It was a colourful and vibrant evening at Hotel O and as everyone gathered around the dinner table, it was golf that dominated the conversation. The occasion was the launch of the Srixon Golf Academy in the city. The evening also saw the presence of Anil Seolekar, chairman, Oxford Golf and Country Club (OGCC), Clive Bradsley, instructor Srixon and Brandon D' souza, associate director, OGCC. Located in the beautiful Sahyadri Hills, the Srixon Academy is a venture of OGCC. “It has been quite a while that this part of the country produced a champion golfer. I believe that the golf academy will go a long way in filling that void and in a couple of years, we can boast of golfers of the highest caliber emerging from here,” said Seolekar. To be trained by Bradsley, an AAA master professional from Australia, students will enjoy the facilities of 42 bays, and latest teaching aids, including swing analysers. Phil Ryan and his Pacific Coast Design team have designed the lush green golf course.

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