Maya from Madurai is an Indian play written by Naren Weiss. The play explores the life and death of a drug dealer, and marked the directorial debut of actress Pooja Devariya. [1] It premiered at the 2013 edition of the Short and Sweet Festival in Chennai, India; where it won the Play of the Day award. Three days before script submission, director Devariya called former classmate Weiss and asked him to write something, describing what she had in mind. [2]
The play subsequently toured the country as a part of The Park's New Festival in 2013. [3] South Indian theatre troupe Stray Factory took the one act play to six Indian cities, with four other short plays. [4] The original production starred Venkatesh Harinathan, [5] who also translated the play. [6]
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film, or subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck, do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film.
The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition, and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year and features one of the world's largest rodeos, a parade, midway, stage shows, concerts, agricultural competitions, chuckwagon racing, and First Nations exhibitions. In 2008, the Calgary Stampede was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on niche, B-rated and low budget movies in various genres, from horror to sci-fi. Regularly held in July/August, by 2016 its annual audience had already surpassed 100,000 viewers and outgrown even the Montreal World Film Festival.
Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the careers of screenwriters, who historically have been underrepresented within the film industry.
Raphael Sbarge is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka on The Guardian (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper on Once Upon a Time (2011–18) and Inspector David Molk on the TNT series Murder in the First (2014–16). He is also known for voicing Carth Onasi in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), RC-1262 / "Scorch" in Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005) and Kaidan Alenko in the Mass Effect trilogy (2007–12).
Sean Baker is an American film director, cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and editor. He is best known for the independent feature films Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket, as well as his involvement in the Fox/IFC puppet sitcom Greg the Bunny and its spin-offs.
Georgios "Yorgos" Lanthimos is a Greek film director, film producer, screenwriter, photographer, theatre director and former professional basketball player. Since 2015, Lanthimos has transitioned from making films in Greek to making higher-budget English-language films produced in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States. In his English-language career, he has received four Academy Award nominations for his work: Best International Feature Film for Dogtooth (2009), Best Original Screenplay for The Lobster (2015) and Best Director and Best Picture for The Favourite (2018).
Daniel Barber is a British director. Having begun his career as director of commercials, he was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008 for his short film The Tonto Woman. In 2009 he directed Michael Caine in Harry Brown.
James Kicklighter is an American film director, producer, and writer from Bellville, Georgia.
The San Diego International Film Festival is an independent film festival in San Diego, California produced by the non-profit San Diego Film Foundation. The main event has traditionally been held annually in the autumn at venues in the Gaslamp Quarter, La Jolla and Balboa Park.
Ricardo Gutierrez is a Mexican American actor, director, and teacher. He had a recurring role as Alderman Mata on the first season of the Starz Network drama series Boss.
Stray Factory is an Indian Independent entertainment company founded on July 17, 2010 by Mathivanan Rajendran as a performing arts company before diversifying into online media in 2014 and independent film in 2017. Upcoming films include Nirvana Inn (2019) & Nasir (2020).
Naren Weiss is an actor, playwright, and former model. He played Osama bin Laden in Kamal Haasan's film on terrorism Vishwaroopam, Dekker in the ABC series Deception, and is known for his work in theatre in India and the United States.
Venkatesh Harinathan is an Indian actor, who appears in Tamil cinema (Kollywood).
Stephen Dunn is a Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film directorial debut in 2015 with Closet Monster, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Pooja Devariya is an Indian theatre and film actor as well as a performance coach who works primarily in Tamil film industry, alongside a Kannada film industry.
Lisa Jackson is a Canadian Screen Award and Genie Award-winning Canadian and Anishinaabe filmmaker. Her films have been broadcast on APTN and Knowledge Network, as well as CBC's ZeD, Canadian Reflections and Newsworld and have screened at festivals including HotDocs, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Melbourne, Worldwide Short Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.
Usman Mukhtar is a Pakistani actor, director, producer and cinematographer.
Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF) is an annual short film festival held in Bengaluru, India. Held first in 2010, it previews and showcases selected short films, in categories such as International, Indian, Karnataka, Animation, and non-competition category. These films are of less than 50 minutes in duration.