Mumbai, Aug 5 (IANS): Vidya Balan-starrer 'Sherni', anthology 'Ludo', 'Soorarai Pottru' featuring Suriya and Biswajeet Bora's directorial 'God on the Balcony' have been nominated for top honours at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2021.

The award ceremony will take place virtually on August 20. The festival is presented by the Victorian government in Australia. It is an annual festival that takes place in Melbourne, Australia now in its 12th edition, the IFFM 2021 has gone virtual as well as physical due to the global pandemic.

This year the festival is launching three categories under the belt of web shows. The festival will recognise Best Series, Best Performance in a series each under the Actor and Actress category.

This list of names includes extraordinary films of 2021 such as 'Ludo' directed by Anurag Basu, Vidya Balan-starrer 'Sherni' directed by Amit Masukar, 'Soorarai Pottru' (Tamil) that stars and is produced by Suriya and directed by Sudha Kongara and 'God on the Balcony', an Assamese film starring Harish Khanna and directed by Biswajeet Bora.

This year's Best Documentary features some of the most compelling stories including 'Shut Up Sona', 'W.O.M.B', 'About Mumma', among others.

Winners of Best Film, Best Indie Film and Best Documentary each win state-of-the-art camera from Black Magic Design apart from the award. Another key highlight is that the Best Film winner automatically gets a nomination nod under the Best Asian Film category at the annual prestigious AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards)

Malayalam film 'Kayattam', 'Lootcase', 'Ludo', 'Sherni', 'Soorarai Pottru' and 'Tasher Ghawr' will be competing in the Best Film category.

For the Best Indie Film, 'Fire in the Mountains', 'God on the Balcony', 'Laila aur Satt Geet – Gojri', 'Nasir', 'Pinki Elli?', 'Seththumaan', 'Sthalpuran', 'The Great Indian Kitchen' are nominated.

Names such as Rajkummar Rao, Suriya, Pankaj Tripathi, Neel Deshmukh, Koumarane Valavane, Jitin Puthanchery, Harish Khanna and Benjamin Daimary are contending for the Best Actor category.

For Best Actress, the nominees are Vidya Balan, Rasika Dugal, Swastika Mukherjee, Kani Kusruti, and Rima Kallingal.

Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Manoj Bajpayee, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Pankaj Tripathi and Saif Ali Khan have been named for Best Performance (Male) - Series.

For the Best Performance (Female) - Series, names such as Neena Gupta, Prajakta Koli, Rasika Dugal, Samantha Akkineni, Shahana Goswami and Shweta Tripathi Sharma have been nominated.