The International Film Festival of Kerala is a film festival held annually in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India. This film festival started in 1996 and is hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy on behalf of Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala. The festival is held in November or December every year and is acknowledged as one of the leading cultural events in India.
Swayamvaram is a 1972 Indian Malayalam-language drama film co-written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, starring Madhu and Sharada in the lead roles. Notable smaller roles were played by Thikkurisi Sukumaran Nair, Adoor Bhavani, K. P. A. C. Lalitha, and Bharath Gopi. The film depicts the life of a couple—Vishwam (Madhu) and Sita (Sharada)—who have married against their parents' wishes and want to start a new life at a new place. The title is an allusion to the ancient Indian practice of a girl of marriageable age choosing a husband from among a list of suitors.
Nizhalkuthu is a 2002 Indian film in Malayalam directed, written and co-produced by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The film explores the recesses of the human consciousness. It stars Oduvil Unnikrishnan in the lead with actors Narain, Murali, Sukumari, Reeja, Nedumudi Venu, Vijayaraghavan, Jagathi Sreekumar and Tara Kalyan in supporting roles. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section and received critical acclaim. The film was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the festival. Cahiers du Cinema hailed the film as "the most poetic film this year in Venice".
Aashirvad Cinemas is an Indian film production company based in Kochi, Kerala. It was established in 2000 by Antony Perumbavoor, since then, it has produced 32 Malayalam films, starring Mohanlal. Since 2009, the company co-operates with the distribution company Maxlab Cinemas and Entertainments co-founded by Mohanlal and Antony Perumbavoor for distributing films. It is one among the most active and leading production houses in the Malayalam film industry.
Anjali Menon is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Anjali has won international, national and state awards for her work and is best known for her feature films Manjadikuru, Kerala Cafe, Ustad Hotel, Bangalore Days and Koode. She is counted among the change agents in Indian cinema whose work gets attention from the audience and the critics. Anjali is the founder of Little Films a film company based in Mumbai and Kerala that produces fiction and non-fiction works. Anjali is one of the founders of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), an organization that focuses on gender equality in the Malayalam film industry.
Bina Paul, also known by her married name Bina Paul Venugopal, is an Indian film editor who works mainly in Malayalam-language films. A graduate of the University of Delhi, she completed a course on film editing from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, in 1983.
Adaminte Makan Abu is a 2011 Indian Malayalam-language social drama film written, directed and co-produced by Salim Ahamed. It stars Salim Kumar and Zarina Wahab, with Mukesh, Kalabhavan Mani, Suraj Venjarammoodu, and Nedumudi Venu in supporting roles. The cinematography was handled by Madhu Ambat. The film features songs composed by Ramesh Narayan and score by Isaac Thomas Kottukapally. The film tells the story of a poor attar seller Abu (Kumar) whose only remaining wish in life is the Hajj pilgrimage, which he strives hard to fulfill.
Veettilekkulla Vazhi is a 2010 Indian Malayalam adventure drama film written and directed by Dr. Biju. The film is about terrorist organizations operating in India and how they recruit young Keralites. It stars Prithviraj, Indrajith and Master Govardhan in main lead roles.
Salim Ahamed is an Indian film director, screen writer and producer. After working for a long time as a travel consultant, he joined as a creative director and script writer in a television channel. His directorial debut, Adaminte Makan Abu (2011), fetched him numerous accolades and was screened at various international film festivals. It was also chosen as India's official entry to be considered for nomination in the Best Foreign Film category for the 84th Academy Awards. Then he made two movies Kunjananthante Kada (2013) and Pathemari (2015) with Mammootty as the lead. The later won the Best Feature Film In Malayalam award at the 63rd National Film Awards. Salim's latest film is And the Oscar Goes To...(2019), which tells about his own experiences with production and marketing of his first film.
Agnisakshi is a Malayalam novel written by Lalithambika Antharjanam. Originally serialised in Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly, it was published as a book by Current Books in 1976. It tells the story of a Nambudiri woman, who is drawn into the struggle for social and political emancipation but cannot easily shake off the chains of tradition that bind her. The novel was concerned with implied criticism of aspects of social structure and behaviour.
Kazhcha Chalachithra Vedi or Kazhcha Film Forum is a film collective in Kerala, India. It started in the year 2001 at Neyyattinkara thaluk in Thiruvananthapuram district as a collective effort of young film lovers. The aim of the Kazhcha Chalachithra Vedi is to make films with artistic value with the contribution from the society. It has produced three short films with the ideology of ‘people’s cinema’. In the year 2013 the film society has been registered under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act, 1955.
Oraalppokkam is a Malayalam film written and directed by Sanalkumar Sasidharan. It is the first Malayalam movie which has been produced through online crowdfunding program. This is an initiative of Kazhcha Chalachithra Vedi, a film society movement based in Thiruvananthapuram. Kazhcha has a history of producing short movies with the financial contribution from film lovers. Oraalppokkam is the fourth venture of Kazhcha. It is claimed that Oraalppokkam will be copyleft after 5 years from the date of release.
Ennu Ninte Moideen is a 2015 Indian Malayalam-language biographical romantic drama film written and directed by R. S. Vimal, based on the real-life story of Kanchanamala and B. P. Moideen, which took place in the 1960s in Mukkam, Kozhikode. Prithviraj Sukumaran and Parvathy Thiruvothu essay the title characters of Moideen and Kanchanamala while Bala, Tovino Thomas, Sai Kumar, Sashi Kumar and Lena appear in supporting roles.
M S Prakash Babu is an Indian film director, screenwriter and visual artist, known for his work in Kannada feature film Attihannu mattu Kanaja" which has been officially selected in the Competition and nominated for ‘Tiantan Award’ 2015,5th Beijing International Film Festival, Trained as a Visual artist from renowned Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan, West-Bengal, He worked as an illustrator and Graphic designer in Indian National Newspaper The Times of India.
P. Jayachandran , better known by his pen name Unni R., is an Indian short-story writer and screenwriter, who is known for his work in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. Born in Kudamaloor in Kottayam district, he is currently based in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. He studied in Kudamaloor LP school, CMS college High school, CMS College Kottayam and Baselius College, Kottayam. Unni R. won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Screenplay for the film Charlie (2015). His notable screenplays include Munnariyippu, Kullante Bharya in 5 Sundarikal and Bridge in Kerala Cafe.
Sanal Kumar Sasidharan is an Indian poet, lawyer, and filmmaker.
Sexy Durga is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language indie horror film directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan. The film is about the religious divide in the society of Kerala and its effect on marriage between two people from two different religious backgrounds.
Jiji P Joseph, also known as Jijimon Joseph is a location sound recordist, sound designer and film editor in Indian film industry. He won the first ever Kerala State Film Award 2014 for location sound recording for the film Oraalppokkam and the consecutive year for the film Ozhivudivasathe Kali in fraternization with Sandeep Kurissery. He has fashioned his film career collaborating on feature films and short films in Malayalam cinema.
Niv Art Movies is a film production company in New Delhi state, India established in the year 2008. Shaji Mathew, a Delhi based Malayali is the proprietor of the firm. It has produced 6 Malayalam films 5 out of the 6 films produced by the company are directed by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Prathap Joseph is a Mathrubhumi journalist turned award-winning cinematographer turned filmmaker. He belongs to a league of new-age indie filmmakers from Kerala who are making waves on the festival circuit with films made on shoestring budgets. Active in filmmaking since 2010, he has conducted workshops in cinematography and filmmaking at the K. R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts, the National Institute of Technology Calicut and at Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University. He is also the founder of the Light Source Photographic Society and the Minimal Cinema film commune, and a director of the New Wave Film School.
