Jayasurya and Anna Ben, the Malayalam film actors, bagged the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, respectively, at the 51st Kerala State Film Awards for the year 2020. The winners were announced by Saji Cheriyan, minister of Kerala Film Development Corporation, and Chalachitra Academy on Saturday.
While Jayasurya bagged the Best Actor award for his performance in the survival drama Vellam, Anna Ben won the Best Actress award for her performance in Kappela.
Director Jeo Baby‘s The Great Indian Kitchen won the Best Feature Film award, and Ayyappanum Koshiyum, the Prithviraj Sukumaran and Biju Menon-starrer directed by the late Sachy, won the award for Best Movie Providing Wholesome Entertainment.
Jayasurya had earlier shared the Best Actor award with Soubin Shahir at the 49th Kerala State Film Awards
The jury for the 2020 awards was headed by actor-filmmaker Suhasini Mani Ratnam. Other members of the jury were director Bhadran, Kannada filmmaker P Sheshadri, musician Mohan Sithara, cinematographer CK Muraleedharan, sound designer M Harikumar, and critic and screenwriter N Sasidharan.
The award for Best Music Director was won by M Jayachandran, while the Best Lyricist award was bagged by Anwar Ali. Mahesh Narayanan was declared Best Editor and the Best Art Director recognition was won by Santhosh Raman.
The Best Director award this year was given to Sidharth Siva for Ennivar and Best Debut Director was awarded to Muhammad Musthafa for Kappela.
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Best Singer awards were won by Shahabaz Aman and Nithya Mamen. Niranjan S and Aravya Sharma bagged the Best Child Artiste awards while Nalini Jameela got a Special Jury mention for costume design.
Earlier, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the announcement of the 50th Kerala State Film Awards for 2019 was delayed till October 2020. The winners for 2019 included Suraj Venjaramoodu (Best Actor), Kani Kusruti (Best Actress), Lijo Jose Pellissery (Best Director), Fahadh Faasil and Swasika Vijay (Best Supporting Actors) and Vasanthi (Best Film). As many as 119 films competed under 33 categories for the 2019 state award. The award presentation ceremony was held in January 2021 at Tagore Hall in Thiruvananthapuram with a limited number of guests.