Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a Northern Irish actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has served as its president since 2015. His accolades include an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours, and was given Freedom of the City in his native Belfast in 2018. In 2020, he was ranked in 20th place on The Irish Times' list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Ustad Zakir Hussain is an Indian tabla player, composer, percussionist, music producer and film actor. He is the eldest son of tabla player Alla Rakha. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2023, by the Government of India. On 8 February 2009 for 51st Grammy Awards, Hussain won the Grammy in the Contemporary World Music Album category for his collaborative album Global Drum Project with Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju & Giovanni Hidalgo.
Hideyuki Hirayama is a Japanese film director. His theatrical debut was the film Maria's Stomach in 1990. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for The Games Teachers Play in 1992. In 1995, School Ghost Stories was a big hit and made into popular series. Begging for Love in 1998 got many awards as International press award (FIPRESCI) in Montreal World Film Festival, Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year, Mainichi Film Award for Best Director etc. In 2001, Hirayama won Best Director Choice for Turn at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. He also got several Japanese film awards for director, including the Best Director award for The Laughing Frog and Out at the 2003 Yokohama Film Festival.
The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) is an association of professional film critics, who work in print, broadcast and online media, based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The organization was founded in 1990 by film critics Sharon LeMaire and Sue Kiner, following the success of the first Chicago Film Critics Awards given out in 1988. The association comprises 60 members.
Jack Cardiff, was a British cinematographer, film and television director, and photographer. His career spanned the development of cinema, from silent film, through early experiments in Technicolor, to filmmaking more than half a century later.
Norma Aleandro is an Argentine actress. She is considered one of the most celebrated and prolific Argentine actresses of all time and is recognized as a cultural icon in her home country.
The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episodic television and panel conversations.
Ettore Scola was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He received a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1978 for his film A Special Day and over the course of his film career was nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Netherlands Film Festival is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht.
Madhur Bhandarkar is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. In 2016, Bhandarkar was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour, by the Government of India.
Dasari Narayana Rao was an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, lyricist, and politician known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema, in addition to Hindi cinema. He has directed more than 150 feature films in a variety of genres. He holds the Limca World Record for directing the most number of films in the world. He is known by the moniker Darsaka Ratna. His works emphasize social injustice, corruption and gender discrimination. Narayana Rao has received two National Film Awards, nine state Nandi Awards including the Raghupathi Venkaiah Award, and four Filmfare Awards South including the Lifetime Achievement. During his career he had also acted in Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada films.
Thazhathupurakkal Karunakara Panicker Rajeev Kumar is a National Award-winning Indian director of Malayalam films, from Trivandrum. He is the winner of five Kerala State Film Awards for Best Film, Director, Story Writer & Script Writer, a show director, theatre actor and percussionist (Mridangam). He is a founding member and leader of the musical band Blue Birds in 1980 and Super Mimics, a comedy show in 1979. He is also the Kerala University winner of Mono Act in the University Youth Festivals 1980–1982 and Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy winner for Mono Act 1979–1982.
Hitonari Tsuji is a Tokyo-born Japanese writer, composer, and film director. In his film and singing work he uses the name Jinsei Tsuji, an alternative reading of the Japanese writing of his name. He debuted as a writer in 1989. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as overseas, with his work being translated into 20 languages and selling over ten million copies.
Mark Lee Ping-bing is a Taiwanese cinematographer, photographer and author with over 70 films and 21 international awards to his credit including 2 Glory Of The Country Awards from the Government Information Office of Taiwan and the president of Taiwan's Light Of The Cinema Award. Lee began his film career in 1977 and in 1985 he started his prolific collaboration with Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. Known best for his use of natural lighting utilizing real film and graceful camera movement, Lee received the Grand Technical Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for In the Mood for Love. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Lee was honored with nominations by the American Society of Cinematographers for its 2014 First Annual Spotlight Award for Best Cinematography for his work on the 2012 film Renoir and by the French Academy of Cinema Arts for a Cesar Award for Best Cinematography in 2014 also for the film Renoir.
Jason Kliot is an American independent film producer based in New York. Kliot emerged with the American indie wave of the 1990s, producing alongside his wife and business partner Joana Vicente. In 1995 Kliot and Vicente associate produced Todd Solondz's feature debut, Welcome to the Dollhouse, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Kliot and Vicente have since worked with directors such as Steven Soderbergh, Brian De Palma, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener, Jim Jarmusch, and Alex Gibney.
Ileana Citaristi is an Italian Odissi and Chhau dancer, and dance instructor based in Bhubaneswar, India. She was awarded the 43rd National Film Awards for Best Choreography for Yugant in 1995 and became, in 2006, the first dancer of foreign origin to be conferred the Padma Shri for her contributions to Odissi.
Bahram Dehghani, also known as Bahram Dehghan is an Iranian film editor. He studied film editing and graduated from USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles.
The Best Actress Award is one of main awards of the Feature Film Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It is conferred on the best actress, or the best actresses ex aequo.
The Best Actor Award is one of main awards of the Feature Film Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It is conferred on the best actor, or the best actors ex aequo.
The Best Director Award is one of main awards of the Feature Film Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Since 1990, it is conferred on the best director.
