Indo-latvian sci-fi thriller ‘Manny’, directed by Dace Puce and written and produced by Sonal Sehgal (India) swept the the awards at the very prestigious Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival which concluded last evening.
The film is produced by Kristele Pudane and Marana Productions (Latvia). According to Festival director Troy Bernier, ‘Manny’ had the maximum number of nominations and the highest number of awards won by any film. The festival had 120 films in competition from 30 countries!
The film won ‘Best Sci-Fi Picture Runner Up’, Best Cinematography Award given to Gatis Grinbergs, Best Background Score won by Naresh Kamath and Best Supporting Actor won by Tony Hawkins.
The festival had some very eminent people on its panel. David Gerrold, who wrote the original script for Star Trek, Thaddeus Cessari, Strategic Communications Specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and American filmmaker and producer Robert Meyer Burnett.
Having won an International award for scoring the background score including two original sound tracks composed and sung himself, Naresh Kamath is over the moon. “The pandemic forced us to work in novel ways. Throughout working on the film, the director Dace and I interacted completely online. I have scored films before but never like this, not having the director in the studio with me. It worked I guess!,” says Kamath.
The Festival was held online due to the pandemic. All screenings and ceremonies were also held on the website of the festival where the participants from 30 countries joined in!
A very proud and happy producer, Sonal said “I missed the award ceremony because I miscalculated the time difference and literally slept through it all. I thought it was a day later and then I woke up to texts and a few missed calls from the Festival Director Troy Bernier telling me that we had won “Several awards”! I thought I was still dreaming”.
The film is about the journey of an Indian woman who travels to Latvia for a writer’s retreat to work on an autobiographical novel as she struggles with her identity as a closet homosexual. Her life unfolds through three love interests, one real, one a figment of her imagination and the third virtual – man, woman and AI.
The plot keeps you on your toes as she gets trapped in a house by one of them and tries to find the courage to confront her true self and escape the hostage situation at the same time.
‘Manny’ has had a great festival run, having been screened at various festivals around the world. It also won “Best Film” at the European Cinematography Awards.