11th CMS VATAVARAN Awards Announced today

New Delhi (India), April 26: India’s longest standing and largest green film festival, CMS VATAVARAN announced the winners of the 11^th competitive edition today. A total of 824 entries were submitted to this competition from 61 countries (international section) and 22 states in India (national section).

This year a total of 21 National and International Films were Awarded in 10 categories. These Awards were selected after a rigorous three tier process. After an internal peer review, a Nomination Jury of 30 eminent experts headed by Dr BV Mathur, Chairpersons National Biodiversity Board, shortlisted the films for awards and finalised all the nominated films. The final Jury of 10 experts headed by Shri Shyam Benegal, eminent film maker and co-chaired by Dr G B K Rao, CMD Pragathi Group, finalised these Awards from the Nominated list of National and International Films.

The Awards for this Competitive edition was announced and given out in an online Award ceremony on April 23, 2022. This Award Ceremony showcased all nominated films, announce the winners (in 10 national & international categories), showed clips of winning films and also heard from the winning filmmakers. CMS VATAVAVARAN 2021 Directory was also launched during the event and is now available on the festival website. This XI Festival Directory lists all the shortlisted films (315) with details of their film and film makers.

The program was attended by eminent Film makers, government officials, experts and partners. Welcome remarks were given by Dr P N Vasanti, Director General, CMS. She mentioned about the journey of CMS VATAAVRAN till now and also explained about the rigours three-tier selection process.

In the Special Address by His Excellency Patrick Hébert, Honorable Consul General of Canada mentioned about the importance of film festivals in today’s scenario and also congratulates all the winners of the festival respectively.

The Awards for different categories were announced by eminent guests, including Mr Vivek Saxena IFS, Dr G B K Rao, Ms Cavita Taragi, , Dr Jatinder Kaur Arora, Mr Kapil Triparthi and Dr N Bhaskara Rao.

The Award Ceremony also concluded the 11^th edition of this festival and forum. A range of programs including workshops for teachers, green film making workshops, seminars, special screenings followed by discussions with film makers, talks with environmental experts and film makers were held both online and offline in different venues. The festival and forum was held in a hybrid mode for the first time.

All 89 (International and National films) nominated films selected by Nomination Jury of the 11th competitive edition of CMS VATAVARAN were screened exclusively on India Science OTT channel & App, an initiative of Vigyan Prasar an autonomous organisation of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. Partners and supporters of this festival edition included, Government of Haryana (Pollution Control Board), Canadian High Commission, Vigyan Prasar, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Punjab State Council for Science & Technology (PSCST), Chitkara University, Pragati Resorts, MOEFCC, IUCN CEC and Green Film Network.

CMS VATAVARAN is India’s premier environment and wildlife film festival and forum – it is aimed towards enhancing understanding, appreciation and shift in attitudes towards the natural world and to increase space for environmental issues in mass media and evolve a nationwide environment outreach framework. The festival reaches out to people from all walks of life including filmmakers, civil society groups, government organizations, environmentalists, researchers, conservationists, policy makers, activists, public and private sector organizations and students of all ages and is recognized as a calendar event amongst filmmakers, environment, wildlife and conservation sector. Its unique twin track approach of organizing competitive and traveling film festivals and environment forum has positioned it as one of the most prestigious film festivals across the globe. Since its inception in 2002, ten competitive and 52 travelling festivals in 41 cities of 25 Indian states have been organized. Website: www.cmsvatavaran.org

LIST OF ALL WINNERS