Eminent children's film-maker Vinod Ganatra has been conferred with South Africa’s prestigious ‘Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his contribution to films. Vinod Ganatra becomes the first Indian to be honoured with the ‘Nelson Mandela Lifetime Achievement Award. Vinod Gantra was conferred with the award at the 7th Nelson Mandela Children’s Film Festival for his outstanding contribution to children's cinema.

About Vinod Ganatra

Globally renowned filmmaker and editor Vinod Ganatra of Gujarat but now based in Mumbai has been active in Film & Television Production from 1982.

He has edited and directed about 400 Documentaries and newsreels. He has Produced 25 multilingual television programmes for Children and youth. His first TV programme, BAINGAN RAJA, won the ‘Janakinath Gaur Award’ from Doordarshan.
His Gujarati film Harun Arun made on the India Pakistan border received the "Liv Ullmann Peace Prize” at the 26th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. He is the only Indian to have won the prestigious ‘Liv Ullmann Peace Prize”.
Ganatra has won 36 national and International awards. He is also the recipient of the “DadaSaheb Phalke Lifetime Achievement Award” conferred by the Association of Film and Video Editors.‘
Ganatra also has the distinction of being a member of the jury of over 100 national, regional and international film festivals world over.

About Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is perhaps the most famous personality in South Africa who has the distinction of being the first black President of South Africa.

He was born on 18 July 1918 in South Africa, which followed an official apartheid policy.
Under the apartheid policy, the country followed a racial segregation policy which denied political and other civil rights to the black majority, ethnic Indians, and coloured population of South Africa. Political and economic rights were confined to the white minority population of South Africa.
Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) party in 1944 and actively participated in the anti apartheid struggle and opposed the ruling National Party. He was intermittently jailed by the government for his anti-apartheid movement.
In 1962, he was arrested for plotting to overthrow the government by violence, and he, along with his colleagues, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.
From 1964 to 1982, he was kept at the Robben Island Prison off Cape Town, and later he was shifted to Pollsmoor Prison.
During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela’s reputation grew steadily, and he became widely known as the most prominent black leader in South Africa. He became the symbol of the anti-apartheid movement.
Following negotiation with the government led by Frederik Willem de Klerk, Mandela was released from jail in 1990.
Their negotiations led to an end to the apartheid policy in the country, and South Africa became a multiracial democratic country.
Presidential elections were held in 1994 in South Africa, during which all the people of South Africa had voting rights, and Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president of South Africa.
The new South Africa was called a ‘Rainbow Nation’.
Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk were honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
The Indian government conferred him with the country's highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna, in 1990. He is the second non-Indian after Pakistan’s Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (1987) to receive India’s highest civilian award
His birthday, 18 July, is observed as Nelson Mandela International Day.

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