KATHMANDU, Nov 8: Aditya Khadka, a fifteen year old filmmaker was awarded at the 33th Chicago International Children Film Festival on November 6 for his short film ‘Dhartiputra’.

The film portrays the miraculous survival of four-month old, Sonis Awal who was rescued after being buried under his house for 22 hours following the devastating earthquakes in April 2015. The film mainly focuses on the emotions of Rasmeela (Soni’s mother) during those 22 hours and her feeling after her son was rescued. Of 289 films in competition in the festival, ‘Dhartiputra’ bagged second prize in young filmmaker category.

CICFF is the biggest film festival for children and youth in North America. 

Aditya is a grade 10 student, studying in Vidhya Sanskar School. ‘Dhartiputra’ had earlier won the ‘Best Documentary’ award in the Real Time Film Festival, Nigeria 2016 which was held last month and was the largest film festival in Africa. It was also awarded in Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival Seismic short film competition last year. 

‘Dhartiputra’ was also screened in three other US festivals. It is also selected for Indie Wise Virtual Film Festival, 2016, which will be held in March 2017 in the US.