26th International Film Festival of Kerala
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Jury

International Jury

Khairy Beshara

JURY CHAIRMAN

Khairy Beshara is an Egyptian film maker active in the Egyptian film industry since the 1970s. He is one of the Egyptian directors who re-defined Realism in Egyptian cinema in the 1980s. Beshara completed his graduation from Egyptian Higher Institute of Cinema in 1967. He started his career with a focus on documentaries then moved to feature narratives and directed 13 long features that were screened at various international film festivals. He is one of the first Egyptian and Arab directors to venture into digital film making in the late 1990s.

Fatemeh Motamed-Arya

Fatemeh Motamed-Arya is an internationally acclaimed actress on both stage and screen. In her career that spans over 4 decades and 70 films, she was awarded 4 Crystal Simorgh for best actress and got over 80 international awards. She made her directorial debut with a documentary about Iranian ex-president Mohammad Khatami. She is a professor of cinema and theater at the University of Isfahan. She has served as a juror for more than 60 international film festivals and gives master classes & workshops around the world.

Amir Karakulov

Amir Karakulov is a Kazakh director, screenwriter and editor. After having studied at the University of Kazakhstan, he worked there for two years in the journalism department. He then graduated from the Moscow film academy VGIK (1984) and at the Almaty Art and Theatre Institute in 1990. His feature début Razluchnitsa was given the Fipresci Prize at the Moscow Film Festival. His works include Listja/Leaves (1989, short), Razluchnitsa/Woman between Two Brothers (1991), Golubinyj zvonar/The Doves' Bell Ringer (1994), Poslednie kanikuli/Last Holiday (1996), and Jylama /Don't Cry (2003).

Nagaraj Manjule

Nagraj Manjule is an Indian filmmaker working in Marathi cinema. His films are centred on the perils of the caste-based discrimination in India. His first short film Pistulya is about a Dalit boy’s inability to attend school. Nagraj’s debut film Fandry (Pig) narrates the hardships faced by the marginalised in a village where the upper castes are the dominant force. His next, Sairat which deals with caste discrimination and honor killing was premiered at 66th Berlin International Film Festival. He has authored a collection of poems in Marathi Unhachya Katavirudhha.

Rajiv Menon

Rajiv Menon is a celebrated Cinematographer, Director and ad-film maker. He won the National award for cinematography apart from numerous other awards. His well known works include Bombay, Guru and Kadal. He ventured into filmmaking and won accolades for his works. Minsara Kanavu, Kandukondain Kandukondain and Sarvam Thaalamayam are his major works. A well known advertisement filmmaker, Rajiv Menon is known for his contribution to public service films. He founded Mindscreen Film Institute. He has been mentoring many well known cinematographers.

FIPRESCI JURY

Nachum Mochiach

Serving over 30 years as an entertainment editor, writer and a film critic in various outlets, printed, electronic and digital in Israel. Nachum Mochiach studied Film and Television at Tel-Aviv University and studied Mass Media at NYU, in New-York. Working now for a leading cultural site called ``Habama`` (The Stage) and for a highly rated monthly magazine called ``Atmosphere``. He’s also broadcasting a weekly radio program on films.

Sadia Khalid

Sadia Khalid is a screenwriter and film critic from Bangladesh. She graduated in Screenwriting from the University of California, Los Angeles and worked on numerous scripts in Hollywood. She has also worked as an entertainment journalist at the Daily Bruin in Los Angeles and the Daily Star in Dhaka. She is currently the Cultural Editor of Dhaka Tribune, one of the leading English dailies in Bangladesh. Sadia has served as a jury member at different international film festivals including FIPRESCI jury at Cannes Film Festival this year and Dhaka International Film Festival last year.

SILADITYA SEN

Siladitya Sen is an Indian film-critic, analyst, and journalist based in Kolkata. He has been working with ABP House since 1998 and a regular contributor to the Editorial page of the Bengali newspaper, Anandabazar Patrika, since 1999. He is working with its Editorial department since 2007. Siladitya Sen is a member of the FIPRESCI-INDIA and Film Critics Circle of India (FCCI). He has served on the jury for the Indian Panorama section of IFFI (1999) and the jury for the National Award for the Best Book and Writing on Cinema (2000).

NETPAC JURY

Raman Chawla

Raman Chawla has been working in the area of Cultural Management particularly related to Film and Television since 1985. He worked for 10 years at the Embassy of France as Deputy Attaché Film and Television. He has also been Executive Producer for Pankaj Butalia’s Shadows in the Dark and Jahar Kanungo’s award winning feature film Reaching Silence. Raman is currently employed as Senior Vice President, Osian’s-Cinefan, Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, reputed to be an excellent platform for showcasing Indian, Asian and Arab cinema.

ROLANDO B TOLENTINO

Rolando B. Tolentino is Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication and faculty of the UP Film Institute. He is recipient of the UP Artist 2 Productivity Award, UP Centennial Professorial Chair, National Book Award (Manila Critics Circle) and Writer’s Prize (National Commission for Culture and the Arts). He writes fiction and creative non-fiction, and is a fellow of the UP Institute of Creative Writing. He chairs the Manunuring Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critics Group) and the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy.

Prasanna Vithanage

Prasanna Vithanage is one of Sri Lanka's most notable filmmakers. He first forayed into theatre and then went on to make his first film 'Sisila Gini Gani' (Ice on Fire) in 1992. Since then Prasanna Vithanage has gained national and international critical acclaim for his works. Prasanna wrote and directed 'Anantha Rathriya' (Dark Night of the Soul), 'Purahanda Kaluwara' (Death on a Full Moon Day), 'Ira Madiyama' (August Sun), Akasa Kusum, Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka, Gaddi among others. These films have gone on to win various National and International Awards and are widely screened throughout the world.

JURY FFSI K R MOHANAN ENDOWMENT

Etami Borjan

Etami Borjan works as Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. She holds MA in Film Studies from the University La Sapienza in Rome, Italy, and PhD in Film Studies from the University of Zagreb. In 2009 she was granted Fulbright Fellowship as a Visiting Researcher at New York University, USA. She has been invited as a jury member at international film festivals in Europe and Asia and she has worked as a curator and programmer for film festivals in Europe.

G P Ramachandran

G P Ramachandran is a film critic and columnist writing in Malayalam and has nine books to his credit. He has won the 54th National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 2006. He was a jury member of the 55th National Film Awards (best writing on cinema) in 2007, the Bengaluru International Film Festival (2014), Kerala Government Television Awards for 1996 and 1997, and IDSFFK 2009. He received Kerala State Government Film Award four times. He is a member of the General Council of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.

Premendra Mazumder

Premendra Mazumder is working on cinema in versatile capacities. He is the General Secretary of Fipresci-India and edits its film journal 'Cine-India' and online journal 'E-CineIndia'. He has served in the official jury of more than twenty renowned film festivals. He has authored a book on Hundred Years of Indian Cinema and edited several others. He is an activist of the film society movement for more than four decades and presently he is holding the posts of the Asia Pacific Secretary of the International Federation of Film Societies and Vice President of the Federation of Film Societies of India.