The year's state awards, announced yesterday was largely dominated by films of Mammootty. While the megastar himself claimed the award for the best actor for his meticulous performance in ‘Palery Manickyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakinte Katha’, this movie and his ‘Pazhassi Raja’ bagged majority of the major awards announced by State cultural minister M A Baby. Together both the films bagged 12 awards, with ‘Pazhassi Raja’ winning eight and ‘Paleri Manickyam..." four.

While Shwetha Menon was awarded her first best actress award for her role of Cheeru in ‘Palery...’, which was also named the best film, Hariharan won the award for best director for 'Pazhassi Raja'. 'Pazhassi Raja' did merit all awards for its technical excellence and breath-taking narratives of a bygone era, opined Sai Paranjape who headed the jury.

‘Ividam Swargam Aanu’ directed by Roshan Andrews was named the best popular movie of the year. 36 feature films, two children's film and two documentaries were screened before the committee.