The State Film Awards for the year 2016 will be presented at a function to be held at the Thalassery Municipal Stadium at 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan will be presented the J.C. Daniel award at the function.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will present the awards. Culture Minister A.K. Balan will preside.
Around 45 awards in different categories will be presented. In a press meet here on Friday, Mr. Balan said the film awards declaration this year had won appreciation from all around, for its fairness in selection. The awards were aimed at encouraging talents that can take forward Malayalam cinema aesthetically and technically.
The winners of the major acting awards were not selected based on star power, he said.
Vinayakan was chosen as the Best Actor (Male) and Rajisha Vijayan as the Best Actor (Female).
Vidhu Vincent was chosen as the Best Director for her film Manhole.
Shyam Pushkaran won the award for Best Screenplay and Salim Kumar won the award for Best Story.
More popular
The Minister said that the LDF government has taken a decision to make the award functions more popular. The award functions are now being held in different parts of the State each year. Last year’s award function held in Palakkad was marked by large crowd participation, he said.
Dance, music shows
The function this year promises a long line-up of dance and musical performances. Actor Shobhana and group will open the show with their dance performance. There will be performances by Lakshmi Gopalaswami, Vineeth, Vineethkumar, Roma and Rima Kallingal. Winner of the Best Music Direction award M. Jayachandran will present a musical show, with Sudeepkumar, Sithara Krishnakumar, Suraj Santosh and others performing with him. Ramesh Pisharody, Surabhi Lekshmi, Kottayam Nazeer and Vinod Kovoor will present a comedy programme.