MUMBAI: The eight-day MAMI Festival came to an end on Thursday with the felicitation of two film industry veterans, Manoj Kumar and Oliver Stone. This was followed by the award ceremony in which Turkish film Majority bagged the best film award while the Silver Gateway Award for best direction was bagged by the Thai film, Mundane History.

Lifetime achievement awards were bestowed on Kumar and Stone. 

In his acceptance speech, Stone said he was honoured to get the award. “Thank you Mumbai. India has a great culture, you make great movies and I am honoured to accept this award.‘

The Golden Gateway Award for the best film in the international competition category went to Majority, directed by Seren Yuce. The film is the story of 21-year-old Mertkan who falls in love with Gul, a girl from a different ethnicity, and was part of the international competition for directors who are debuting with feature films.

The SGA award for best director was presented to Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong for her film, Mundane History. The film is an experimental narrative of sexual frustration and cosmic identity in class-based Thailand.

While Mundane History got the director a cash prize of Rs 5 million, Majority won Rs 2.5 million as prize money.

The SGA in the international competition, was presented to the Danish film R directed by Michael Noer and Tobias Lindholm. The SGA for best actor was presented to Bartu Kucukcaglayan for his performance in the film Majority while the silver gateway award for best actress was presented to Marie Helene Bellavance for her role in Canadian film, Vital Signs.

Film luminaries who attended the closing ceremony were Yash Chopra, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Sudhir Mishra, Madhur Bhandarkar, Arunoday Singh, Satish Kaushik, Prem Chopra, Hrishita Bhatt, Rituparno Sengupta, Rajshree Ojha and Aamir Bashir among others.

The ceremony was followed by the screening of director Robert Schwentke‘s Red that stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Mary Louise Parker and John Malkovich.