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.
Jamia Millia Islamia is a central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces during the British Empire in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in 1935. It was given the deemed status by the University Grants Commission in 1962. Jamia Millia Islamia became a central university by an act of the Indian Parliament which was passed on December 26, 1988.
Sarmad Sultan Khoosat is a Pakistani actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Mainly known for his work as a director and actor in both cinema and television, Khoosat has directed the super-hit TV dramas Humsafar and Shehr-e-Zaat.
Ram Kumar was an Indian artist and writer who has been described as one of India's foremost abstract painters. He was associated with the Progressive artists' group along with greats like M.F. Hussain, Tyeb Mehta, S.H. Raza. He is said to be one of the first Indian artists to give up figurativism for abstract art. His art commands high prices in the domestic and international market. His work "The Vagabond" fetched $1.1 million at Christie's, setting another world record for the artist. He is also one of the few Indian Modernist masters accomplished in writing as well as painting.
Sayed Haider Raza was an Indian painter who lived and worked in France for most of his career. Born on 22 February 1922 in Kakkaiya, Central Provinces, British India, Raza moved to France in 1950, marrying the French artist Janine Mongillat in 1959. Following her death from cancer in 2002, Raza returned to India in 2010, where he would live until his death on 28 July 2016.
Akbar Padamsee was an Indian artist and painter, considered one of the pioneers in modern Indian painting along with S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza and M.F. Husain. Over the years he also worked with various mediums from oil painting, plastic emulsion, water colour, sculpture, printmaking, to computer graphics, and photography. In addition, he worked as a film maker, sculptor, photographer, engraver, and lithographer. Today his paintings are among the most valued by modern Indian artists. His painting Reclining Nude was sold for US$1,426,500 at Sotheby's in New York on 25 March 2011.
Raja Hasan is an Indian playback singer who was born in December 1982 in the city of Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. He was a finalist on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007, in which he finished as runner-up to Aneek Dhar. Recently he was a judge in the singing competition show "Voice of Shekhawati".
Amar Kanwar is an Indian filmmaker. His work challenges the limits of the medium in order to create complex narratives traversing several terrains such as labour and indigenous rights, gender, religious fundamentalism and ecology.
K. Srilata is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and academic based in Chennai. Her poem, In Santa Cruz, Diagnosed Home Sick won the First Prize in the All India Poetry Competition in 1998. She has also been awarded the Unisun British Council Poetry Award (2007) and the Charles Wallace writing residency at the University of Sterling (2010). Her debut novel Table for Four was long-listed in 2009 for the Man Asian Literary Prize and released in 2011.
Amit Dutta is an Indian experimental filmmaker and writer. He is considered to be one of the most significant contemporary practitioners of experimental cinema, known for his distinctive style of filmmaking rooted in field-research and personal symbolism resulting in images that are visually rich and acoustically stimulating. His works mostly deal with subjects of art history, ethno-anthropology, and cultural inheritance through cinema.
Artes Mundi is an international arts organisation based in Cardiff, Wales. Established in 2002, it is committed to supporting international contemporary visual artists whose work engages with social reality and lived experience. The Artes Mundi exhibition and prize takes place biennially, running a sustained programme of outreach and learning projects alongside the public exhibition and prize giving.
Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, also known as M R Hasan, is a Bangladeshi journalist, documentary photographer, photojournalist, filmmaker and visual artist. He has made black and white photographs about climate change, political violence and the Rohingya refugee crisis. He has also been practicing fine art photography and digital art for many years.
Siddharth Sivakumar is a curator, art critic, and writer. He is presently the Head of Visual Arts and Publication at a Kolkata-based multidisciplinary arts centre, Kolkata Centre for Creativity. Siddharth takes a keen interest in the matters of the art world and regularly writes for art magazines such as Art and Deal, ArtEast, and Art India. His articles on socio-cultural issues have appeared in National dailies including The Hindu Business Line, The Statesman, The Wire, and The Telegraph (India) among others.
George Thengummoottil is an Indian filmmaker and editor. He has also DIT for the 2022 Academy award winning documentary The Elephant Whisperers. His films have been nominated for several film festivals like International Documentary and short-film festival of Kerala and CMS Vatavaran film festival.
Maxim Dondyuk is a Ukrainian photographer and visual artist, who combines photography, video, text, and archival material in his work. He explores issues of history, memory, conflicts, and their consequences.
Annu Palakunnathu Matthew is a British photographer. Her work has been exhibited at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum; Harvard Art Museums; Guangzhou Biennial of Photography, China; Tang Museum, New York; and The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Matthew is a professor of art (photography) in the University of Rhode Island's Department of Art and Art History.
The Cinema of Manipur is the film industry based in Manipur, India. It includes not only Meitei language movies but all the films made in different languages of the different communities in Manipur. The Manipuri film industry was born when Matamgi Manipur by Debkumar Bose was released on 9 April 1972. From Aribam Syam Sharma's Paokhum Ama, the first colour Manipuri film (1983), M.A Singh's Langlen Thadoi, the first full-length colour Manipuri film (1984), Oken Amakcham's Lammei, the first Manipuri digital film (2002), to Priyakanta Laishram's Oneness (film), the first Manipuri gay-themed film (2024), Manipuri cinema, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, has grown in both its form and culture.
Gopi Gajwani is a painter, photographer, designer, and cartoonist from New Delhi, India. He graduated from the Delhi School of Art in 1959 with a degree in Graphic Designing.
Nomthunzi Mashalaba is a South African painter and visual artist. Her art has featured in international exhibitions including Map of the New Art in Venice, Crossing Boundaries in Qatar and The Art of Humanity at the Pratt Institute in New York.
Raza Foundation is a Delhi-based non-profit organisation dedicated to arts, culture and ideas. It was established in 2001 by the Indian painter Sayed Haider Raza, the foundation creates venues for diverse artistic expressions by promoting conversations through presentations, panel discussions, concerts, and theatre. It has been hosting events such as publications, seminars, lectures, concerts, recitals, and art exhibits, with a focus on the younger generation.
