State Film Awards 2018: Parvathy, Indrans bag top honours; ‘Ottamuri Velicham’ the Best Film

The much awaited Kerala State Film Awards 2018 were announced Thursday with veteran actor Indrans winning the Best Actor award for his role of a desperate father searching for his missing son in ‘Aalorukkam'.

Cultural minister A K Balan announced the awards at a press conference at 12.30 pm in Thiruvananthapuram.

Actress Parvathy, who played the role of an Indian nurse, held hostage in Iraq in the critically acclaimed as well as commercially successful 'Take Off', won the award for the Best Actor (Female).

Lijo Jose Pallisery walked away with the award for Best Director for his film ‘Ee.Ma.Yau’ while ‘Ottamuri Velicham’, directed by Raul Riji Nair, won the award for the Best Film.

‘Take Off’ won Mahesh Narayanan the award for the Best Debut Director. The award for the Best Music Composer went to MK Arjunan for the movie ‘Bhayanakam’.

The stellar performances in two movies — 'Ee.Ma.Yau' and 'Ottamuri Velicham' – helped Pauly Valsan bag the Best Character Actor (Female) award. Alancier won the award for the Best Character Actor (Male) for his role in the film ‘Thondimuthalum Drikshakshikalum’.

The award for the Best Lyricist went to Prabha Varma for the song 'Oolathil Melathal' from the film ‘Clint’. Gopi Sunder won the Best Background Score for ‘Take Off’. Singer Shahbaz Aman won the Best Singer (Male) for the song 'Mizhiyil Ninnum' from ‘Maayanadhi’. Singer Sithara Krishnakumar grabbed the award for the Best Singer (Female) for ‘Vimanam’.

The minister mentioned that the jury, consisting of those like Dr Biju, T V Chandran, Cherian Kalpakavadi and Dr M Rajeev Kumar, wasn't happy about the quality of the movies this year. 58 movies were of new directors, out of which one was a woman. 78 per cent of the winners this time are debutantes at the awards.

Here are the other award winners:

Popular Film - Rakshadhikari Baiju

Best Debutant Director- Mahesh Narayanan (Take Off)

Best Children's Film- Swanam

Special Jury Award - Vineetha Koshy (Ottamuri Velicham)

Best Supporting Actor - Alancier Le Lopez (Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum)

Best Music Director – MK Arjunan (Bhayanakam)

Best Sound Mixing- Pramod Thomas (Aeden)

Best Sound Design- Ranganath Ravi (Ea.Ma.Yau)

Best Laboratory / Colorist - Chitranjali Studio (Bhayanakam)

Best Make-up man - Ranjith Ambady (Take off)

Best Playback Singer (Female)- Sithara Krishnakumar (Vimanam)

Best Playback Singer - Shahabaz Aman (Mayaanadhi)

Best Editor- Appu Bhattathiri (Ottamurivelicham, Veeram)

Best Art Director- Santhosh Raman (Take Off)

Best Sync Sound - Smijith Kumar PB (Rakshadhikari Baiju)

Best Costume Designer - Sakhi Elsa (Hey Jude)

Best Dubbing artist (Female ) - Sneha M (Eeda)

Best Choreographer - Prasanna Sujith (Hey Jude)

Best Supporting Actress - Pouly Valsan (Ea.Ma.Yau, Ottamuri Velicham)

Best Child Artist (Male)- Master Abhinandh (Swanam)

Best Child Artist (Female) - Nakshatra (Rakshadhikari Baiju)

Best Story - M A Nishad (Kinar)

Best Cameraman - Manesh Madhavan (Aedan)

Best Script Writer - Sajeev Pazoor (Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum)

Best Script (Adaptation) - S Hareesh, Sanju Surendran (Aedan)

Second Best Film - Aedan

Best Lyricist - Prabha Varma (Clint)