Mumbai: Nandita Das’ directorial debut Firaaq and Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth have been awarded at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).The films won in the Asia-Africa Competitions category.

While Firaaq’s Sreekar Prasad won the Best Editor award, the Best Screenplay award was bagged by Mehta for Heaven On Earth.

"This year our jury members were hard at work trying to evaluate the merits of truly excellent films. We are extremely proud of the films that we have screened, and choosing between them was very difficult," said DIFF artistic director Masoud Amralla al Ali.

The awards are aimed at recognizing the best films in the festival. They were expanded this year to include a new Asia Africa segment, which embraces films from emerging markets.