Trivandrum, Feb 09: Prithviraj, antihero-turned-good guy in Vasthavam, has been the surprise choice for Kerala State best actor award this year while character artiste Urvashi is the best female actor (Madhu Chandralekha). Cultural Affairs Minister M A Baby announced the State film awards here yesterday.

Lenin Rajendran is the best director (Rathrimazha). M P Sukmaran Nair's Drishtandam is the best film and Roshan Andrews's Notebook the second-best. Lal Jose's Classmates is the most popular film.

Tribal boy Mani and Malavika shared the award for best child artiste for their performances in Photographer and Karutha Pakshikal respectively.

Saikumar's role as a Kathakali artiste in Ananadabhairavi and Padmapriya's sterling performance in Karutha Pakshikal and Yes Your Honour won them second-best actor awards.

Manoj Pillai is the best cinematographer (Kayyoppu). Sreenivasan won a special jury mention for his performance in Thakara Chenda while its director Avira Rabecca also got a special jury mention for the debut attempt.

Actress Khushboo and Madhu Kaithapram won special jury mention for acting and music direction in films, Kayyoppu and Ekantham respectively.

The jury, led by T K Rajiv Kumar, has left the best children's film category blank. Ramesh Narayanan's music in Rathri Mazha fetched him the best composer award while Prabha Varma won lyricist award for, Koode varoo ormakale.. in the film, Out of Syllabus. Major Ravi has bagged the best script writer award for the Mohan Lal starrer Keertichakra.

Among other awardees are L Bhoominathan for editing (Vasthavam) and James Albert best story (Classmates). The best film award carries Rs 100,000 for the producer and Rs 40,000 for the director. The best director gets Rs 50,000. Best actor and actress get Rs 30,000 each.