Niharika Singh is an Indian actress, producer and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Earth India 2005 and represented her country at Miss Earth 2005. She made her acting debut with the critically acclaimed drama Miss Lovely which competed in Un Certain Regard at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Niharika was selected for Berlinale Talents in 2016.
Saswata Chatterjee is an Indian actor of television and films based in Kolkata. Born to actor Subhendu Chatterjee, Saswata Chatterjee began his career with a Hindi serial directed by Saibal Mitra, based on Samaresh Majumdar's Kaalpurush. He gained popularity by portraying the character of Topshe in a Feluda-based television series directed by Sandip Ray. His acting in many Bengali films has been praised by the critics, including his portrayal of a Ritwik Ghatak-inspired character in the 2013 film Meghe Dhaka Tara. He enjoyed success at the national level in Sujoy Ghosh's 2012 blockbuster Hindi film, Kahaani, where he played Bob Biswas, an assassin.
Onir is an Indian film and TV director, editor, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his film My Brother…Nikhil, based on the life of Dominic d'Souza, starring Sanjay Suri and Purab Kohli, which was one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.
Bikas Ranjan Mishra is an Indian screenwriter and film director. His first feature film Chauranga released in January 2016. The film won awards at Mumbai Film Festival and Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA).
Pratim D. Gupta is an Indian journalist, film critic, screenwriter and film director. He reviewed films for The Telegraph newspaper and later for online platform Film Companion. His first film as writer-director is Paanch Adhyay, starring Priyanshu Chatterjee and Dia Mirza. His subsequent films Shaheb Bibi Golaam and Maacher Jhol have been big box office hits besides being critically acclaimed.
Soham Chakraborty, is an Indian actor, producer, television personality and politician. He has appeared in more than 100 Bengali films, as child artist and as male lead. He earned numerous accolades, including Uttam Kumar Awards, BFJA Awards and Star Jalsha Entertainment Awards. Chakraborty has a significant following in West Bengal, Assam and other adjacent states in India and Bangladesh. He is a member of All India Trinamool Congress. He contested 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election from Borjora Constituency. He won the General election 2021 from Chandipur Vidhansabha Constituency by a margin of 14000 votes. He was sworn in as Member of Legislative Assembly on 2 May 2021.
Are You Listening!, is a Bangladeshi fiction-non-fiction film written-directed by Kamar Ahmad Simon and produced by Sara Afreen. The "OPENING FILM" of Open Doors Screening at LOCARNO Film Festival, 'Are You Listening!' has been invited to more than 40 International Festivals including "OFFICIAL SELECTION" of 25th IDFA, the largest documentary festival of the world and "OPENING FILM" of 55th Dok Leipzig, the oldest documentary festival. It was also exhibited on special occasions of Conference of Youth (COY) in Paris, Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) London, Cinema Louxor in Paris, Stadkino Basel in Switzerland and many more.
Pankaj Dubey is an Indian author, screenwriter, director, producer and social entrepreneur based in Mumbai. He has a Bachelor of Laws degree from Delhi University and a Masters in Applied Communications from Coventry School of Art and Design. Dubey worked for the BBC World Service in London and TV Today Group in New Delhi. He has curated and programmed more than 50 film festivals across India. He was awarded with the Youth Icon Award for Social Entrepreneurship in Gulbarga, Karnataka in 2010 for initiating India's first street film festival for children in slums and villages, the Sadak Chhaap Film Festival. Dubey's debut novel is called What A Loser! in English and Loser kahin ka! in Hindi. Pankaj Dubey is a bilingual author and writes all his titles in English and Hindi. His other novels are 'Ishqiyapa' - To Hell With Love, Love Curry and Trending In Love. Pankaj Dubey has been selected amongst three Asian authors for the Writer's Residency in Seoul Art Space Yeonhui, Seoul, South Korea in 2016. He was also awarded with the 'Global Innoventure Award' for literature and storytelling in the House of Lords in September 2018.
Byomkesh was a 2014 Indian Bengali crime fiction television series based on the Bengali sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The series starred Gaurav Chakrabarty, Saugata Bandyopadhyay and Ridhima Ghosh as Byomkesh Bakshi, Ajit and Satyabati respectively. The series premiered on 20 November 2014 on Colors Bangla channel and ended on 14 November 2015. This series is re-runned on 4 March 2024. The first episode was narrated by Sabyasachi Chakrabarty.
Kamar Ahmad Simon is a Bangladeshi filmmaker. He was featured as red carpet director in Piazza Grande at Locarno and has won various awards including the prestigious Harrell Award at CIFF (Camden), Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel (Paris), Open Doors Award and Arte International Prix at Locarno, Golden Conch at MIFF (Mumbai), grants from Sundance, IDFA-Bertha and WCF/ Berlinale. He has been a jury member of the Sydney International Film Festival for the Australian segment, La Bibliothèque publique d’information (BPI) France, Johns Hopkins University USA has acquired his film and Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) have exhibited his work.
Thithi (Funeral) is a 2015 Indian Kannada drama film co-written and directed by Raam Reddy. Consisting of a cast of non-professional actors from villages in the Mandya district of Karnataka, the film is a (semi-) light-hearted story about three generations of men reacting to the death of their 101-year old patriarch. It is an Indian-American co-production, jointly produced by Pratap Reddy from Prspctvs Productions and Sunmin Park from Maxmedia.
Sibs Shongwe- La Mer is a screenwriter, film director, musician, TED (conference) talks alumni and visual artist born in Johannesburg, South Africa. His critically acclaimed debut feature film, Necktie Youth premiered in the Panorama section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival and numerous top tier international film festivals, winning "Best South African Feature Film" and "Best Direction" at the Durban International Film Festival in 2015. The film went on to garner a multitude of awards including "Best Achievement in Cinematography" and "Best Achievement in editing" at the 2015 South African Film and Television Awards. Necktie Youth was theatrically released in South Africa (2015) at Ster-Kinekor and on the iTunes Store & DStv Box-office. The film was later released in the Netherlands, Brazil & American VOD between 2016 and 2017. Mid 2016, Shongwe-La Mer signed representation contracts with top London film lit agency Casarotto Ramsey & Associates , Rick Yorn's legendary LBI entertainment & Hollywood heavy weight CAA.
Raam Reddy is an Indian film director, writer and photographer. He made his directorial debut with the 2016 Kannada film Thithi, which premiered at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival on 8 August 2015, where it won the Golden Leopard in the "Filmmakers of the Present" category as well as the First Feature award.
Berlinale Talents, formerly Berlinale Talent Campus, is the talent development programme of the Berlin International Film Festival. An annual summit and networking platform for 200 outstanding creatives from the fields of film and drama series, the events take place in February at the three venues of HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theatre in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Berlinale Talents is organized and directed by Florian Weghorn and Nikola Joetze as project manager.
Paz Fábrega is a Costa Rican film director, scriptwriter and producer. She has directed two feature films and several shorts. Her film Agua fría de mar earned the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, one of the most prominent awards won by a Central American film. Her works deal with loneliness and the vulnerability of youth.
Password is a 2019 Indian Bengali-language vigilante action thriller film directed by Kamaleswar Mukherjee. The film starring Dev, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Paoli Dam, Rukmini Maitra while Adrit Roy and Trina Saha played supporting roles. The film revolves around the dark side of social networking, and deals with stealing of password and privacy issue.It was released on 2 October 2019. Upon release, the film received critical acclaim, where critics praised the concept, action sequences, visual effects, message, music and cast performances. Despite receiving critical acclaim, the film didn't managed to do well at the box-office.
SOS Kolkata is a 2020 Indian Bengali-language action thriller film written and directed by Anshuman Pratyush and produced by Jarek Entertainment and Pratyush Production. The film starring Yash Dasgupta, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan and Sabyasachi Chakraborty is about a suspected terrorist attack and how the army, police and the common people come together to save lives and work against wrongdoings. The filming resumed on 6 July 2020, after lockdown due to the pandemic.
Petersen Vargas is a Filipino filmmaker. He is best known for directing the Cinema One Originals Best Picture winner 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten (2016) and the web series Hello Stranger (2020).
Carlo Francisco Manatad is a Filipino filmmaker and editor. He is one of the most prolific editors in the Philippines and has edited the films Ruined Heart (2014), A Gentle Night (2017), Balangiga (2017) and Women of the Weeping River (2018) to name a few. As a director, his films have screened in a number of international film festivals, such as in Locarno, Toronto, Busan, and Cannes.
