Screen Awards: Year’s Best for your Consideration

Until three years ago, the Screen Awards were noted for being solely jury-based, with the 11-member jury choosing the films that were finally nominated in the various categories. While its jury continues to be the most important factor in making these decisions, in 2010, a Screen Selection Academy was put together to aid the jury. Now, this Academy — which this year consists of 20 people from the film industry — watches and shortlists films in every genre made through the year and recommends them to the jury.

This year, the 11-member jury is being chaired by actor, filmmaker, dancer and politician Hema Malini. Over the last five months, the jury members watched the shortlisted films and discussed them in much detail, before arriving at the final nominations. The Academy, on the other hand — which includes producers Bhushan Kumar and Siddharth Roy Kapur, directors Sujoy Ghosh and Sanjay Gadhvi, sound designer Resul Pookutty and music composer Aadesh Shrivastava — watched close to 120 films released in 2012 and submitted a final list of 25. It must be noted, however, that the jury is not bound to choose from among these films and may disregard them if it so pleases. For instance, films such as Cocktail, OMG: Oh My God! and Talaash were among those top ranked by the Academy but not nominated for the Best Film category by the Jury.

However, for most part, for the Best Film category, the Jury chose from the Academy’s recommendations. The latter recommended Barfi!, English Vinglish, Vicky Donor, Gangs Of Wasseypur, Kahaani, OMG: Oh My God!, Paan Singh Tomar and Talaash. And Barfi!, English Vinglish, Gangs Of Wasseypur, Kahaani, Paan Singh Tomar and Vicky Donor made it to the final list. Similarly, the Best Director nominations also reflected the recommendations of the Academy, with their list reading Anurag Basu, Gauri Shinde, Anurag Kashyap and Shoojit Sircar and the final nominees including all but Shinde, who is a nominee in the Most Promising Debut Director category.

Meet the Jury

n Hema Malini, actor

n Sadhana Nayyar, actor, filmmaker

n Jethu Mandal, film editor

n Padmini Kolhapure, actor

n Alka Yagnik, singer

n Santosh Sivan, cinematographer, filmmaker

n Nagesh Kukunoor, filmmaker

n Nishikant Kamat, writer, director, actor

n Rajkumar Gupta, filmmaker

n Rajat Arora, writer, dialogue writer, lyricist

n Vikramaditya Motwane, filmmaker