26th International Film Festival of Kerala
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Jury 2020

International Jury

Kim Hong-Joom

JURY CHAIRMAN

Hong-Joon Kim is an award-winning director and screenwriter. His films include Jungle Story and La Vie En Rose. Kim Hong-Joon started as an assistant to veteran director Im Kwon-Taek, and is now a leading figure in Korean film culture: he's the director of the PiFan Fantastic Film Festival, Bucheon and is currently into his second term as a Commissioner for the Korean Film Commission. He has introduced a number of `forgotten' Korean film classics on TV, and his highly personal video series My Korean Cinema stems from those introductions. He is the Artistic Director of Gangneung International Film Festival. He is currently teaching at Korea National University of Arts.

Anup Singh, Filmmaker

Anup Singh studied Literature and Philosophy in Mumbai and Film at the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), from where he graduated in 1986. Singh has worked as assistant director, production designer and scriptwriter. Name of a River (2002), his first feature film, was selected at over thirty film festivals and received the Silver Dhow Prize in Zanzibar. His second film Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (2013) premiered in Toronto and won several awards, including Best Asian Film by Netpac and the Silver Gateway Award in Mumbai. The Song of Scorpions (2017) had its world premiere in Locarno.

Philip Cheah

Philip Cheah is a film critic and is the editor of BigO, Singapore's only independent pop culture publication. He is currently programme consultant for the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (Indonesia), Hanoi International Film Festival (Vietnam), Jaffna International Film Festival (Sri Lanka), Asiaticamediale (Italy), El-Gouna International Film Festival (Egypt) and Shanghai International Film Festival (China). He is Joint President of NETPAC, the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. He co-founded the South-east Asian Film Festival and is Patron of the SEA (South-east Asia) Screen Academy in Makassar, Indonesia. He is co-director of the Asia Pacific Screen Lab, Australia.

Anomaa Rajakaruna

Anomaa Rajakaruna has documented the lives of women and children and has addressed issues such as women in armed conflict, displacement, sexual harassment and violence against women. Her media includes poetry, photography and documentary film and has won several awards. She is the Festival Director of Jaffna International Cinema Festival, Artistic Director of Colombo International Women’s Film Festival and Founder of Agenda 14 Short Film Festival, Colombo. She curates the Monthly Film Forum at Goethe-Institute Colombo. Rajakaruna curated 10 editions of the European Film Festival in Sri Lanka and has served as a juror at over 20 national and international film festivals.

Newton Aduaka

Born in Eastern Nigeria, Newton Aduaka attended the London International Film School. In 1997 he established Granite Film Works. In 2001 Newton's debut feature Rage became the first wholly independently financed film by a black filmmaker in British cinema to be released nationwide. It won many prizes including Best Director at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. Between 2005 and 2007 he co-wrote, directed and executive produced Ezra, his first non-independently funded film, for Arte France. In 2001-2002 he was Filmmaker in Residence at Festival de Cannes' Cinéfondation in Paris. As a director, his short films include Carnival of Silence, Voices Behind the Wall and On The Edge, which won him wide acclaim.

FIPRESCI JURY

Paulo Portugal, Portugal

Paulo is a Portuguese freelance film journalist for three decades and has been present in the many film festivals all over the world, such as Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Rio, Tokyo, Karlovy Vary, Miami, Zanzibar, among others. With an International Relations degree he is finishing his master in Film, Philosophy and Aesthetic Studies. He is an active member at FIPRESCI.

Nada Azhari Gillon, France

A Syrian French critic mainly specialised in French, Arab and Asian cinema, she collaborates regularly with prestigious Arabic publications like Al-Hayat Newspaper, Al Jazeera Documentary, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper and Arab Cinema Magazine (Beirut). Author of “Al Cinema al-irâniyya al-râhina (Contemporary Iranian Cinema). She is a member of Union des Journalistes de Cinéma in France (UJC) and Académie des Lumières in France. She covers film festivals for the press, participates in many Internationals juries (Vesoul, Warsaw, Algeria, El-Gouna, Istanbul, Kolkata, Dhaka) and advises some festivals in France and Asia about their programmes of Arabic cinema.

Shubhra Gupta

Shubhra Gupta is a senior columnist and film critic at The Indian Express. She has written a widely-read weekly review column for over 20 years. She is a frequent traveller to film festivals around the world (Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Doha, Macao, Teheran, Bangkok), and has served on national and international juries. She curates and conducts the hugely popular platform, The Indian Express Film Club, in Delhi and Mumbai. One of the most rewarding aspects of her work is the creation and running of modules on `Understanding Cinema’ for students at media and technology institutes.

NETPAC JURY

Maxine Williamson

Maxine Williamson was influential in establishing the Asia Pacific Screen Awards as Artistic Director/Film Director. She was Director of the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival and Co-Director of the 23rd Brisbane International Film Festival. She is a Board Member of the Selection Committee and Asia Pacific consultant for Turkey’s Sabanci Foundation Short Film Competition; and is currently an Advisory Board member for the Crime and Punishment Film Festival, Istanbul and an Ambassador for the Mongolian Film Academy. She is Artistic Advisor and Exhibition Manager for the touring cultural exhibition and platform FRAME: How Asia Pacific Feminist Filmmakers and Artists are Confronting Inequality. Maxine holds a degree in Film and TV production.

Anashkin Sergey

Sergey Anashkin is a film critic and film scholar from Yekaterinburg in the Ural region of Russia. He has written numerous articles which have been published in mainstream Russian film magazines and is the author of the book Films of Distant and Nearby Asia (a collection of selected articles, 2015). The editor of the book Sakha Cinema: World of Magical Nature and Myths (published by Busan IFF, 2017). Mr. Anashkin's special interest is contemporary Asian cinema. He is an expert on the cinema of Russia's eastern regions, particularly Siberia. Former chairman of the selection committee of the Kazan International Muslim Film Festival. Consultant and programmer for a number of Russian film festivals.

Vidyashankar

Vidyashankar is the founder member and presently the Artistic Director of Bengaluru International Film Festival. He is a former President and Secretary of Suchitra Film Society, a reputed cinephile club of Bengaluru founded in 1971. He has compiled a book on European Film theories in Kannada and edited a book on African Cinema. He headed the NETPAC Jury at Busan International Film Festival, and was part of many a jury in various film festivals such as Cannes, QCinema International Film Festival, Philippines and IFFK. He was invited to participate in a colloquium on Russian Cinema St. Petersburg, Russia in 2019.

JURY FFSI K R MOHANAN ENDOWMENT

Girish Kasarvalli

Girish is a prominent film maker in Kannada film industry. He is an Alumni of FTII, Pune. In a career spanning 4 decades, Girish has made 15 feature films, four documentaries and one TV serial. All his films have won National, International and Karnataka state awards. He has won the President's Lotus award 14 times. (4 times Golden Lotus - given to the best Indian Film of the year and 7 times Silver Lotus Award, including the Best script, Best Short film and Documentary. His maiden venture Ghatashraddha had the distinction of being shown in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Ghatashraddha has also been voted as one of the 20 best films made in the 100 years of Indian cinema by the Film Critics and Film lovers of India. His films have been shown in many International Film Festivals. Rotterdam, Rome, Colombo, Dhaka film festivals have held his retrospectives.His 14 films have so far picked up 25 national awards, 45 state awards and 25 International Awards .He was the Director of Bangalore International film festival, Bangalore for three years.

Aseem Chhabra

Aseem Chhabra is the festival director of the New York Indian Film Festival, the oldest Indian festival in North America. He is the author of the biographies of Shashi Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, and the recently released Irrfan Khan: The Man, The Dreamer, The Star. A film journalist in New York City and New Delhi, he has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Mumbai Mirror, Rediff.com, The Hindu, Outlook, BBC.com, Quartz, Scroll, Newslaundry. He’s been a commentator on Indian cinema and popular culture on NPR, CNN, BBC, CBC, ABC’s ‘Good Morning America.’ Aseem is the voice of Shadow Puppet #1 in director Nina Paley's acclaimed animated film, Sita Sings the Blues.

Rwita Dutta

Rita Dutta (aka. Rwita Dutta) is a Professor, Film Critic and Editor. Presently she is editing a book on Indian Regional Cinema. She is the editor of the international film journal FILMBUFF (www.filmbuff.co.in). She is working on her doctoral thesis ‘City and Cinema’. She has served as the jury member in many international film festivals including Kiev, Cairo, Busan, Cannes, Aswan Women’s Film Festival Egypt, BRICS, Rio de Janeiro and South Asian Short Film Festival. She has conducted Master classes and lectures at various international festivals like Almaty and BRICS forum during Moscow Film Festival.

SELECTION COMMITTEE

International Competition
Nomination and Final

Nomination Committee
Chairperson: Namrata Joshi
Members: Ratheesh Radhakrishnan, Sudha K Francis,
Prateek Vats, Prasanth Vijay, Shaji Joseph,
Sajitha Madathil, Madhu Janardanan

Final Selection Committee
Chairperson: V K Prakash
Members: Namrata Joshi, C S Venkiteswaran,
Vipin Vijay, Rajeev Vijayaraghavan

Malayalam Cinema Today
Chairperson: Mohan
Members: S Kumar, Priya Nair, Dr. Benny Benedict
Pradeep Nair

Indian Cinema Now
Chairperson: Sunny Joseph
Members: Nandini Ramnath, Pradip Kurbah,
Jayan K Cherian, P V Shajikumar

World Cinema
Chairperson: Bina Paul
Members: G P Ramachandran, George Mathew,
Abhilash Vijayan, Deepika Suseelan