MUMBAI: USA –India co-produced short film Jan Villa (USA/India) directed by Indian filmmaker Natasha Mendonca, recently won the Tiger Award for short film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2011.

The film shared the top award with the Belgian film Stardust directed by Nicolas Provost and a US film Pastourelle by Nathaniel Dorsky.

Jan Villa is Mendonca’s personal account of the city of Mumbai after the monsoon floods of 2005. “In Jan Villa, the filmmaker succeeds in telling a deeply moving story that is at once personal and universal. What begins as an outsider’s point-of-view imperceptibly transforms to subjective camera. Through poetic images and notably without the use of voice-over, the film maker intimately reveals to us the soul of a city after devastation,” the Jury stated in its verdict.

Twenty-eight films competed for the Tiger Award that accounted for a prize money of 3,000 Euros.

The 40th edition of the Rotterdam Film Festival, which began on 26 January, concluded on 6 February.