'Nirontor' wins best film award

'Nirontor' was adjudged the best film, an honour it shared with another film at the closing ceremony of the festival in Thiruva-nanthapuram, capital of Kerala.

Sayeed's film had competed in the Asia-Africa-Latin America section.

This is the second international award for 43-year-old Sayeed's third feature film in less than two weeks as it had earlier won a special jury award at the India International Film Festival in Goa on December 3.

An elated Sayeed said, "This is certainly very encouraging and highly prestigious for me".

He reiterated that he would use the prize money to partially finance his next film.

'Nirontor', starring Shabnoor, Iliyus Kanchan and Jayanta Chattopadhyay, will also compete in Chennai International Film Festival later this month.