Top brass at the 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) said on Thursday [25] that Meera Menon received the inaugural Nora Ephron Prize at the annual Women’s Filmmaker Brunch.

First-time filmmaker Menon and her festival entry Farah Goes Bang was chosen from eight 2013 TFF filmmakers to receive a cash prize of $25,000 for “work and talent that embody the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker and writer.”

Farah Goes Bang screens in the festival’s Viewpoints section and centres on an awkward twentysomething who hits the John Kerry campaign trail in the 2004 Presidential election seeking political and sexual fulfillment.

“As a filmmaker I had always been inspired by Nora – she emblematised how to take pain and suffering and turn them into laughter and joy,” said Menon. “Those qualities inspired me and my co-filmmakers.”

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