Aniruddha Roy Chowdhary
Aniruddh Roy Chowdhury is an Indian film director and has directed and produced several Bengali and Hindi films. His highly-acclaimed Hindi movie, Pink (2016), which one the prestigious National Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues. Alongside feature films, he has directed and produced over four hundred ad films. His latest film, ‘Rules of The Games’, once again taps into the intricacies of human relationship.
Sayani Gupta
Sayani Gupta made her debut in Indian cinema in 2012 leading to several appearances in movies like Margarita With A Straw (2014), Jolly LLB 2 (2017), Fan (2016), among others. Her performance was well received for her portrayal in the movie Article 15, earning Best Supporting Actor in the year 2019. Her web-series Inside-Edge and Four More Shots have been nominated for International Emmy’s.
Leena Manimekalai
Leena Manimekalai is a poet and filmmaker committed to social justice. Her narrative documentaries on the dynamics of caste, gender, globalisation, art therapy, student politics, eco-feminism, indigenous people's rights, and LGBTQ lives have been internationally acclaimed and have won several awards in prestigious international film festivals and civil rights circuits. Her debut fiction 'Sengadal/the Deadsea' won her NAWFF(Network of Women Film Festivals) Award at Tokyo for the Best Asian Woman Cinema and also was recognised with prestigious Indian Panorama selections
Ritchie Mehta
Richie Mehta is a Canadian film director and writer. His directorial venture, "Siddharth", was shortlisted at the Golden Globes in the Best Foreign Language category. Mehta's Delhi Crime based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case won the International Emmy Awards 2020 for ‘Best Drama series’.
Prosit Roy
Prosit Roy is an Indian film director, hailing from a Bengali family with strong cultural roots, based out of Kolkata. He made his debut as a feature film director with the critically acclaimed Pari, starring Anushka Sharma. The horror drama film was a genre bender, redefining what horror films have come to mean in the subcontinent. 15th May, 2020 sees the release of his Amazon Original Paatal Lok, already a critical triumph.
Oishik Sircar
Prof. (Dr.) Oishik Sircar is Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School. As a human rights law researcher, educator, and activist, Oishik has worked with Amnesty International, the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre and the Centre for Communication and Development Studies. Oishik has been closely associated with the sex workers’ and queer rights movements in India, and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid globally.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Curtis is not only an actress, but has also written several children’s books and is a blogger. She is a political activist, often advocating for human rights. She has been involved in several philanthropic projects, including helping to finance the rebuilding of the “Great Synagogue” in Budapest, Hungary.
Swara Bhaskar
Best known for her supporting work in mainstream productions and starring roles in independent films, she has won two Screen Awards and has been nominated Filmfare Award on three occasions.
Dilip Mehta
Mostly Sunny premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016. Sunny Leone’s journey from porn star to Bollywood item is traced in Dilip Mehta’s celebrity portrait. Mehta is a photojournalist and director. His five-year coverage of The Bhopal gas tragedy won him numerous prizes including the World Press award and Overseas Press award.
Shabana Azmi
From her first film in 1974, Shabana Azmi has been part of over more than hundred projects. She is also a social activist, and her performances in films in a variety of genres have earned her praises and awards, including five National Film Awards for Best Actress.
Nupur Asthana
Her successful television series ‘Hip Hip Hurray’ in 1998 led her to films and in 2011, her debut film ‘Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge’ produced by the Y-Films banner earned her a nomination for Best Debut Director Screen Awards. She has also directed shows such as Four More Shots and a miniseries Romil and Jugal on Alt Balaji. The show is a modern, homosexual, spin on the classic tale of Shakespeare's Romeo-Juliet. The show was greatly appreciated for breaking the stereotypes and received rave reviews by both the audience and the critics.
Asim Abbasi
Asim Abbasi is a British-Pakistani film director, screenwriter and producer. His short films have played at numerous festivals including the BAFTA-recognised Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Cannes Court Métrage, HollyShorts, Williamsburg Independent, NewFilmmakers NY, Jaipur FIlm Festival and Shortini Italy where "Whore" won the audience award for best short film. In 2018, Abbasi's first feature film, Cake, was lauded by critics and was also selected to be Pakistan's submission to the 91st Academy Awards for best Foreign Language Film. In 2020, Abbasi further established himself as a writer & director with his critically acclaimed webseries, Churails.
Sayani Gupta
Sayani is an Indian film actress. A graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India, she made her feature film debut in 2012 in Second Marriage Dot Com. She has since appeared in supporting roles in films such as Fan, Jolly LLB 2 and Article 15.
Kirti Kulhari
Kirti is an Indian actress and model predominantly works in Hindi-language films. She made her acting debut in an Odia film Dharini in 2002. Her first Bollywood appearance was in Khichdi: The Movie in 2010, followed by a role in Shaitaan in 2011. She then appeared in successful films including Pink (2016), Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019) and Mission Mangal (2019).
Maanvi Gagroo
Maanvi Gagroo is an Indian film actress who has also worked in various web series. She began her career with the Disney Channel's television show Dhoom Machaao Dhoom in 2007. She is known for her work in web series like TVF Pitchers, TVF Tripling, Made in Heaven and Four More Shots Please!
Nimra Bucha
Nimra is a Pakistani television actress who has appeared in a variety of TV serials including top rated shows like Daam, Mera Yaqeen, Baandi. Her most famous work is the Pakistani web series Churails.
Bani J
Bani is an Indian fitness model, actress and a former MTV India presenter & reality TV star. She made her debut in films with Rani Mahal and was last seen in web series Four More Shots Please!.
Meher Bano
Bano is known for her work in television dramas. She has played the lead role of Umama in ARY Digital's Daagh (2012) for which she was nominated for Best Television Actress at the 13th Lux Style Awards
Sebastiano Riso
In the wake of moving on from the Beaux-Arts Academy of Rome, Sebastiano Riso began chipping away at various short movies as a chief. His first component film, Più buio di Mezzanotte, was introduced at Cannes in 2014 while chosen at the 53rd Semaine de la Critique. His subsequent film, Una Famiglia, was released in 2017 and introduced at the Venice Film Festival.
Debalina Majumdar
Friends who have seen/ been a part of the journey of ‘...ebang bewarish' (...and the unclaimed) would remember Swarup, one of those who generously shared their life stories and helped retell the story of Swapna and Sucheta. Soft spoken Swarup loved to talk...especially about their journey, about gender and sexuality. They could spend hours talking even to unknown people, hoping to change their minds, willing them to become more accepting towards difference.
Swarup left us a few weeks ago, too early, leaving behind a void that would perhaps never be filled. We dedicate the screening at the I-View-World Human Rights Film Festival 2020 to the life that Swarup lived. Join us to look back at their generosity, their eloquence.
Tushar Tyagi
Tushar Tyagi is an Indian writer, director, producer. Most recently, he directed “Saving Chintu”, a film exploring LGBTQIA+ themes in India, starring Adil Hussain. Tyagi has won multiple awards and nominations for his work, including at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards and the Canada International Film Festival.
Albertina Carri
Albertina Carri made her first element in 2000, No Quiero Volver a casa, which was likewise screened in Rotterdam. As a movie producer, she has explored a few classes, from film noir to narratives verging on fiction. Her third component, Géminis (2005), was screened in Cannes. She has gotten grants in Valencia, Las Palmas, Barcelona and Buenos Aires, among others. In Argentina, she established the Asterisco International LGBTIQ Film Festival. Las hijas del Fuego/The Daughters of Fire (2018) won the Best Argentine Film Award at the last BAFICI.
Eisha Marjara
With a foundation in photography, Canadian and Quebec movie producer Eisha Marjara first drew consideration with the clever and humorous The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1994). However, it was her component NFB docudrama Desperately Seeking Helen (1999) that set up her a momentous producer. She has created Faerie, a novel about a youngster battling with anorexia. Faerie got rave audits in Canadian and American press, incorporating a star survey in US Publisher's Weekly.
Arshad Khan
Arshad Khan is a numerous award-winning Pakistani-Canadian movie producer. He learned at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he was granted the "Outstanding overall achievement in the film production program" award. He is additionally the overseer of the debut South Asian Film Festival of Canada.
Onir
In 2004, Onir directed and co-produced his first film My Brother Nikhil, distributed by the top privately owned studio in India Yash Raj Film--the first mainstream Hindi film specifically addressing homosexuality in the context of human rights and HIV AIDS. In 2009, ‘I AM’ won the Best Hindi Feature Film Award at the 59th National Awards. The film also won the National award for Best Lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Onir’s empathy for victims of social injustice, sensitivity as a director, and experience in producing independent feature films sets him apart from others.
Faraz Ansari
A sensitive filmmarker and a visual storyteller,
Faraz has been donning various hats from that of
writer to Casting Director to Associate Director to
Executive Producer, for both mainstream and
parallel cinema. He has been a Dadasaheb Phalke
Awardee for best Director for his short film,
Siberia. Faraz Ansari is a writer and director,
known for sisak(2017).
Debanuj Dasgupta
Prof University of California, Santa Barbara Area of Studies Transgender & Queer Theory, Transnational Feminism and Sexuality Studies, Queer Migration Studies, South Asia Studies, Feminist Studies, International Development and Human Rights, Scholar & Activist Methodologies
Bhaskar Hazarika
National Award-winning filmmaker Bhaskar Hazarika is well known for his movies Players (2012), Kothanodi (2015) which received the Regional Award in the National Film Awards India for the Best Feature Film in Assamese. His recent film, Aamis (2019), was nominated in the Mumbai Film Festival as the Golden Gateway of India for the Best Film and in the Tribeca Film Festival for the Best International Narrative Feature.
Ranjan Ghosh
Ranjan K Ghosh is a Bengali filmmaker based out of Kolkata, India. He made his directorial debut in 2014 with the critically acclaimed “Hrid Majharey”, a Bengali feature film starring Abir Chatterjee and Raima Sen. Ghosh had made his screenwriting debut co-authoring Iti Mrinalini, the 2011 film that had also marked the acclaimed director's return to Bengali cinema after more than a decade. The latest movie which Ranjan Ghosh has directed is Ahaa Re (2019) which was screened at the New York Indian Film Festival which was held virtually due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Fahim Irshad
Fahim Irshad, born and brought up in Azamgarh
U.P. He has graduated in Mass Communication
/Films from New Delhi's reputed Institute AJK
MCRC JMI and since then trying his luck and skill
in Mumbai Hindi film industry as a writer and
director. He has written and co-written several
scripts that are in the pipeline. He has written and
directed a short film Mubadia. Aani Maani is his
first feature film.
Yilmaz Ozdil
Yılmaz Özdil is a Kurdish movie director. He did his graduate degree at the Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University on geopolitical border treatment in Kurdish film. In 2013 he guarded his PhD paper named "The Visual Construction of Kurdish Isdentities in Cinema" at the University Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle. From 2003 to 2014, he coordinated a few narrative movies and filled in as colleague chief in a few Kurdish movies shot in Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan and France. He is right now working at Mardin Artuklu University as an associate teacher showing Kurdish film and the portrayal of the Kurds in film.
Michele Cinque
Michele Cinque, born 27 March 1984 graduated in Philosophy at “La Sapienza” University in Rome, has been working in documentary production since 2004. In these years he directed several documentaries and television series, including “Xlife” a 10 episode series on extreme sports broadcasted in Italy, France, Finland, Hong Kong and Macau. He directed the documentaries “LavoroLiquido”, about the Italian world of labour awarded as Best Documentary at Imaie, and “Top Runner”, awarded at FICTS 2009 and at Palermo Sport Film Festival 2010, “Bob Marley, The Reggae’s Prophet” presented at Fipatel 2012 and broadcasted on Rai2, the documentary “Mr. Jazz”, dedicated to Louis Armstrong and coproduced with Rai Storia. Since 2015 Cinque is working as a correspondent from South America for RAI Italia, producing over 100 episodes for the format Community. In 2015 he founds ROMAP, Roma Light Interactive festival, that in two years has gathered more than hundred thousand people in the city center of Rome for its spectacles of lights. His last film Sicily Jass has been presented at 2015 festival dei Popoli, 2016 New Orleans Film Festival, 2016 Mimo Brazil, 2016 Taormina film festival, 2016 Salina Doc fest and many more. Sicily Jass has been awarded in various festivals and in 2017 has been selected by SIAE and to perform a world tour. In 2017 he realized the short film Jululu that has been awarded at 74° Venice Film Festival with Best Direction in the Migrarti section and at Milano film festival with Premio Abba. Cinque is currently working on his new feature length documentary, Iuventa, co-produced with Rai Cinema and ZDF/3Sat.
Rohena Gera
Rohena Gera is an Indian director, screenwriter and producerIn 2003, Rohena Gera made her screenwriting debut for the first season of the Indian comedy-drama television series Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin on Sony Entertainment Television. In 2003 she independently produced the public service advert featuring 16 icons including Zakir Husain, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker, and M.F. Husain, all coming together to say "Stop the hatred" and to fight hate propaganda after the Gujarat riots.
Ambarein Alqadar
Ambarein Alqadar is a media practitioner, filmmaker and writer. Her work is experimental and drawing from feminist traditions and articulations of female subjectivity, Ambarien’s documentaries are a dense texts of re-enactment, observation and narration. Some of her award winning films include Who Can Speak of Men (2005), Ghetto Girl (2011), Four Women and a Room (2008), etc. She is also an alumni of the prestigious AJK Mass Communication Research Center, New Delhi, India.
Tillotama Shome
She is best known for her acclaimed portrayal of Alice in Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding.She played Mrs. Ahmadi in the Hindi political thriller film Shanghai directed by Dibakar Banerjee. About her performance in Shanghai Rediff wrote “Shome created one of this year's most heartbreaking performances in a Hindi film”.
Arun Karthick
Arun Karthick directorial debut Sivapuranam (2016) a Tamil language Film, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It was selected as one of the ten nominees in the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2020) for the Tiger award, and is the winner of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) award for the Best Asian Feature Film. The film was also chosen to be screened at the 49th Edition of New Directors/ New Films, North America's biggest film festival organised by the Museum of Modern Arts. Arun, with just two films, has already made his presence felt in the indie space.
Vinod Kamble
He made his first short film ‘Grahan’ in 2015. His second short film is Post Mortem which was selected in Festival De Cannes, Short Film Corner, 2017.
Onir
In 2004, Onir directed and co-produced his first film My Brother Nikhil, distributed by the top privately owned studio in India Yash Raj Film--the first mainstream Hindi film specifically addressing homosexuality in the context of human rights and HIV AIDS. In 2009, ‘I AM’ won the Best Hindi Feature Film Award at the 59th National Awards. The film also won the National award for Best Lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Onir’s empathy for victims of social injustice, sensitivity as a director, and experience in producing independent feature films sets him apart from others.
Mark Street
Having worked in the film and TV industry for 25 years as a producer, director, editor and sound designer, Mark Street has produced arts segments for on-air and online: featuring artists, curators, galleries and musicians from Gilbert and George to the Bollywood film festival.
William Kelly
In addition to creating traditional prints, drawings and paintings, Kelly has organized and participated in collaborations in public art and theatre. For his role as an international artist, humanist, human rights advocate, and founder of the Archive of Humanist Art, Kelly received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts.
Noah Cowan
Noah Cowan began his career performing various roles at the Toronto International Film Festival. From 2004 to 2008, Cowan acted as the co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival, he helped launch ‘Future Projections’, which aimed to be a city-wide meeting of the visual arts and cinema.In 2008, he became artistic director of TIFF Bell Lightbox, a multi-purpose film institution and the home of the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2014, Cowan became the executive director of San Francisco Film Society, which he rebranded as SFFILM in 2016. He has also worked as an independent consultant to film festivals, movie theaters, producers and media-related NGOs.
Fiona Cochrane
Fiona Cochrane is a producer-director, known for Gorilla Girls (1998), Screamin' Wheelies (2000) and Stories & Songs of the People (2001). Fiona has produced and/or directed several independent feature films as well as numerous documentaries, short films and music videos. In 2019 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for service to the visual arts as an independent film producer. Fiona also continues to work as a general Practitioner in Melbourne.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong grew up in Khon Kaen in north-eastern Thailand. He began making film and video shorts in 1994, and completed his first feature in 2000. He has also mounted exhibitions and installations in many countries since 1998. Often non-linear, with a strong sense of dislocation, his works deal with memory, subtly addressing personal politics and social issues.bHis art projects and feature films have won him widespread recognition and numerous festival prizes, including two prizes (Special Jury Prize, and Palme d’Or) from the Cannes Film Festival.
Davide Quadrio
Davide Quadrio is a China based producer and curator. He founded and directed for a decade the first not-for-profit independent creative lab in Shanghai, Bizart Art Center, as a platform to foster the local contemporary art scene. In 2007, Quadrio created Arthub Asia, a production and curatorial proxy active in Asia and worldwide.
Raghava K.K
Named by CNN as one of the 10 most remarkable people of 2010, and four-time TED speaker, Raghava K.K is a multidisciplinary artist and storyteller whose work is shown in galleries and museums around the world. Having quit formal education at the age of 18 to start his career as a newspaper cartoonist, Raghava is today considered one of India's most successful young artists. Raghava also applies his artistic practice beyond the gallery space. He is actively involved in a radical education initiative, NuVu Studios, an offshoot of Harvard and MIT, to redefine creativity in education.
Sheba Chhachhi
Based in New Delhi and has exhibited her works widely in India and internationally, Sheba Chhachhi is a photographer, women's rights activist, writer, film-maker and an installation artist. Issues centring on women and impact of urban transformations informs most of Chhachhi's site-specific installations and independent artworks.
Dylan Mohan Gray
Dylan Mohan Gray is an acclaimed Indian and Canadian filmmaker. His debut feature documentary "Fire in the Blood" was an official selection at Sundance and over 100 international film festivals, won numerous awards and had the longest theatrical run of any non-fiction film in Indian cinema history. Originally trained as a historian, Dylan recently directed Netflix's first Indian-themed original documentary, "The King of Good Times", the opening film of Bad Boy Billionaires, which released in October 2020 and spent multiple weeks as the #1 title on Netflix India and among the most-watched globally.
Vibha Bakshi
Vibha Bakshi is an Indian filmmaker and journalist. She is known for her films that highlight issues of gender inequality. She is the recipient of four National Film Awards. In 2018, Vibha was awarded the Honorary doctorate degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from her alma mater Boston University for her work as a journalist and filmmaker. Vibha’s most notable films as both director and producer include Daughters of Mother India and Son Rise. Both films are winners of the National Film Awards.
Viveck Vaswani
Vivek Vaswani is an actor, writer and producer.
Mira Nair
Mira Nair began as an actress before segueing into documentary filmmaking. Her narrative feature debut, Salaam Bombay! (1988), won the Caméra d’Or and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. A resourceful and determined independent filmmaker who casts unknowns alongside Hollywood stars. A long time activist, in 1998, Nair used the profits from Salaam Bombay! to create Salaam Baalak Trust, which works with street children in India.
Sarita Choudhary
Sarita Choudhury is an English actress of Indian descent who is best known for her roles in Mira Nairs Mississippi Masala (1992), The Perez Family (1995) and Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1997). She also appeared in the hit TV series Homeland, as the wife of Saul Berenson and in the British series, Death in Paradise. She was last seen in the film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014). In 2015, she was cast in the American crime drama, Blindspot. Her next role is in the upcoming film A Hologram for the King, which is scheduled for an April, 2016 release.
Sooni Taraporevala
Sooni is an Indian screenwriter, photographer and filmmaker who is best known as the screenwriter of Mississippi Masala, The Namesake and Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay! (1988), all directed by Mira Nair. She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2014. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Delhi and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Sharmila Tagore
Tagore began her career as an actress in the 1959 Satyajit Ray film Apur Sansar (The World of Apu). She established herself as a popular Hindi film actress with Shakti Samanta's Kashmir Ki Kali in 1964. She gave big hits such as An Evening in Paris (1967), Aradhana (1969) and Amar Prem (1972). She played a supporting role as actor Sarita Choudary's mother in Mira Nair's 1991 film Mississippi Masala.
Nathan Grossman
Grossman started his career as a stills photographer for Rolling Stone India and later moved into documentary filmmaking, mainly focusing on environmental issues. In 2015 Nathan got the world’s attention for his short film The Toaster Challenge where an athlete tries to generate energy to toast a slice of bread. The video became a global phenomenon with over 15 million views. In 2017 Nathan completed his first full-length TV series for public broadcaster SVT, about the growing meat consumption in Sweden. The show sparked a big discussion about meat consumption in Sweden and got nominated for the best factual program of the year.
Sunder Pal
Pal is a theater artist, an actor, director and theatre instructor. He has worked as an actor in World known plays like Inspector General, Threepenny Opera, Neo Jarh (Punjabi), Doll’s house, Vidyottama (Sanskrit) and many more along with three feature and two short films.
Shyam Selvadurai
Canadian novelist Shyam Selvadurai has received numerous awards for his fiction. Born in Sri Lanka, Selvadurai immigrated with his family to Canada in 1983, following the outbreak of rioting in Colombo sparked by the growing ethnic and political strife between the country's majority Buddhist Sinhalese and minority Hindu Tamil population. Selvadurai studied theatre and creative writing at York University, where he now teaches, and his novels for adults and teens explore the dilemmas of being homosexual and engaging in other non-traditional lifestyles within the traditional Hindi culture of Sri Lanka. Selvadurai's novels for adults include Funny Boy: A Novel in Six Stories as well as Cinnamon Gardens.
Brandon Ingram
Brandon Damian Ingram is an actor and author, currently based in Colombo. As Creative Director at Wunderman Thompson, Sri Lanka, he delights in the study and the understanding of communication strategy. As a fan of speculative fiction, specifically dark fantasy, he enjoys the study of mysticism, and spiritual philosophy. He has 12 years of experience in theatre, during which time he has experimented with devised, musical and immersive theatre. In his first two novels Ingram makes attempts at bringing to light issues such as child sex tourism, and the social ignorance on sexual identity.
Nimmi Harasgama
Nimmi is an actor, writer, and producer. She made her screen-debut through the English movie Mother Teresa in 1997 by portraying a supporting character. Her first appearance in Sri Lankan cinema. was as the lead in the Sinhalese movie Ira Madiyama (2003) for which she won Best Performance/Best Actress at several international and national award ceremonies - these included the 2004 International Film Festival of Las Palmas and 2006 SIGNIS Salutation Awards Ceremony.
