Odisha-Born Filmmaker Susant Misra’s ‘Josef – Born in Grace’ Wins Silver Remi Award

Bhubaneswar: Odisha-born filmmaker Susant Misra’s ‘Josef – Born in Grace’ has won a Silver Remi award in the Christian Feature Film category at the 53rd WorldFest in Houston.

“Congratulations and thanks to everyone on the crew and all our supporters. We couldn’t have made it this far without you!” the social media handle of the movie said.

The movie with an impressive star cast, which includes Victor Banerjee as a Christian priest, is an adaptation of a short story ‘Joseph’ written by Umakanta Mahapatra. It is set in the foothills of the Himalayas between 1960 and 1980 in India.

It has been produced by another Odia, Ashok Mahapatra.

‘Josef – Born in Grace’ is Susant’s fourth feature film.

After a diploma in screenplay writing and direction from FTII, Pune, he directed his first feature film ‘Indradhanur Chaai’ in 1993. It won him the Grand Prix at the Sochi International Film Festival in Russia and was the official selection in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1995. His second film, ‘Biswaprakash’ won the National Awards for Best Odia Film in 2000. ‘Dharin’, his third film was made both in Hindi and Odia.

He also made three documentaries – ‘Dhenkanal – A Multifaceted Paradise’, ‘Samarpanam’, which was on the eminent Bharatnatyam dancer Malavika Sarukkai, and ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ on Odia Literature for the Children’s Film Society, India.

The ‘Josef – Born in Grace’ had earlier featured in the 344 eligible feature films list for the 2019 Academy Awards.

It had also won nominations at the Dhaka International Film Festival, Aurangabad International Film Festival, 3^rd Asian Film Festival, New Delhi Film Festival- NDFF International, Jaipur International Film Festival.