Blessy Ipe Thomas is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Malayalam cinema. He has won one National Film Award and six Kerala State Film Awards for his feature films Kaazhcha (2004), Thanmathra (2005), and Pranayam (2011). His documentary film 100 Years of Chrysostom (2018) received the Guinness World Record for the longest documentary in the world, with a runtime of 48 hours and 10 minutes. His upcoming film is The Goat Life (2024).
Raavanaprabhu is a 2001 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller drama film written and directed by Ranjith in his directorial debut. It is a sequel to the 1993 film Devaasuram written by Ranjith, directed by I.V. Sasi. The film stars Mohanlal in the dual role of Mangalassery Neelakandan and M. N. Karthikeyan, father and son. Napoleon reprises the role of Neelakandan's archenemy Mundackal Shekharan. It also features Vasundhara Das, Innocent, Siddique, Vijayaraghavan, and Sai Kumar. Revathi reprises the role of Bhanumathi in a cameo appearance. The plot follows M. N. Karthikeyan, Neelakandan's son and his attempts to reclaim their ancestral home Mangalassery tharavadu.
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.
The Vanitha Film Awards are presented annually by Vanitha, an Indian magazine from the Malayala Manorama group in the south Indian state of Kerala. The awards ceremony has been instituted to honour both artistic and technical excellence in the Malayalam language film industry. Held and broadcast annually since 1998, the ceremony has gained in popularity over the years and is currently one of the most-watched award ceremonies in Kerala.
Pampally, is an Indian film director and screenwriter from Kerala state.
Lucifer is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language political action thriller film directed by Prithviraj Sukumaran and written by Murali Gopy. Produced by Antony Perumbavoor through the production house Aashirvad Cinemas, the film marks Prithviraj's directorial debut and features Mohanlal in the title role, alongside an ensemble supporting cast including Vivek Oberoi, Manju Warrier, Tovino Thomas, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Indrajith Sukumaran, Saniya Iyappan, Sai Kumar, John Vijay, Sachin Khedekar, Baiju Santhosh, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Fazil, Suresh Chandra Menon and Nyla Usha. Deepak Dev composed the film's music, and the cinematography was handled by Sujith Vaassudev.
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.
The Islamic State (IS) has employed sexual violence against women and men in a terroristic manner. Sexual violence, as defined by The World Health Organization includes “any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.” IS has used sexual violence to undermine a sense of security within communities, and to raise funds through the sale of captives into sexual slavery.
Charlie is a 2015 Indian Malayalam-language adventure drama film directed by Martin Prakkat and written by Prakkat and Unni R. Produced by Prakkat, Joju George and Shebin Becker, the film stars Dulquer Salmaan and Parvathy. The music is composed by Gopi Sundar, while Jomon T. John handles the cinematography. The film released on 24 December. It won 8 awards at the 46th Kerala State Film Awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Cinematography. It was remade into Marathi and Tamil as Deva and Maara, respectively.
Nadia Murad Basee Taha is an Iraqi-born Yazidi human rights activist based in Germany. In 2014, as part of the Yazidi genocide by the Islamic State, she was abducted from her hometown of Kocho in Iraq and much of her community was massacred. After losing most of her family, Murad was held as an Islamic State sex slave for three months, alongside thousands of other Yazidi women and girls.
The Yazidi genocide was perpetrated by the Islamic State throughout Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017. It was characterized by massacres, genocidal rape, and forced conversions to Islam. The Yazidi people, who are non-Arabs, are indigenous to Kurdistan and adhere to Yazidism, which is an Iranian religion derived from the Indo-Iranian tradition. Over a period of three years, Islamic State militants trafficked thousands of Yazidi women and girls and killed thousands of Yazidi men; the United Nations reported that the Islamic State killed about 5,000 Yazidis and trafficked about 10,800 Yazidi women and girls in a "forced conversion campaign" throughout Iraq. By 2015, upwards of 71% of the global Yazidi population was displaced by the genocide, with most Yazidi refugees having fled to Iraq's Kurdistan Region and Syria's Rojava. The persecution of Yazidis, along with other religious minorities, took place after the Islamic State's Northern Iraq offensive of June 2014.
Take Off is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language survival thriller film, based on the ordeal of Indian nurses in the city of Tikrit, Iraq, in 2014. The film is the directorial debut of editor Mahesh Narayan, starring Parvathy Thiruvothu, Kunchacko Boban, Fahadh Faasil and Divya Prabha. It is written by Mahesh Narayan and P. V. Shajikumar. The film was shot in various parts of Dubai and Kerala.
Vidhu Vincent is an Indian film director, writer, journalist and theatre activist from Kerala. She made her feature film debut with the Malayalam film Manhole, which won her that year's Kerala State Film Award for Best Director. At the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala, the film won two awards including the Best Debutant Director Award for Vincent.
Queen is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language drama thriller film directed by Dijo Jose Antony and produced by Arabian Dreams Entertainment Co by Shibu K Moideen & Rinshad Vellodathil. It features Saniya Iyappan as a student in Mechanical Engineering batch. The idea was inspired from the 2015 Onam Celebration that took place in College of Engineering Adoor, Pathanamthitta, which was a massive controversy, and Sree Buddha College of Engineering, Pattoor, Alappuzha an institution in Kerala where a mass gang of boys and their only female classmate of the Mechanical Engineering Department made a dramatic entry making it a unique event becoming viral on internet, too.
Mayaanadhi is a 2017 Indian Malayalam-language romantic thriller film directed and co-produced by Aashiq Abu, and written by Syam Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair. The film stars Tovino Thomas as a criminal on the run and Aishwarya Lekshmi as an aspiring actress. Their troubled love and struggle for survival form the basic plot of the film. It released on 22 December 2017 to widespread critical acclaim from critics. The film was praised for the way it tackled with sexuality and was included in The Hindu 's top 25 Malayalam films of the decade.
Neerali is a 2018 Indian Malayalam-language survival thriller film directed and co-edited by Ajoy Varma from a screenplay by Saju Thomas, with Mohanlal in the lead role. The film was produced and distributed by Moonshot Entertainments. It began principal photography on 9 January 2018 in Mumbai and was completed in February. The film was released in India on 13 July 2018.
Nadia’s Initiative is a nonprofit organization founded in 2018 by Nadia Murad that advocates for survivors of sexual violence and aims to rebuild communities in crisis. The launch of this organization was prompted by the Sinjar massacre, a religious persecution of the Yazidi people in Sinjar, Iraq by ISIS in 2014.
Subharathri (transl. Goodnight) is a 2019 Indian Malayalam-language family drama film written and directed by Vyasan K. P. The film, based on true events, follows Mohammad who set out for his first Hajj pilgrimage. It stars Siddique, Dileep, Anu Sithara, Shanthi Krishna, Asha Sharath and Aju Varghese. The film was released in India on 6 July 2019.
Biriyaani is a 2020 Indian Malayalam-language drama film written and directed by Sajin Baabu. It features Kani Kusruti and Shailaja Jala in the lead roles. The film won NETPAC award for best film in 20th Asiatica Film Festival in Rome, Jury prize for Best Film at Banglore International Film Festival, best film at the Caleidoscope Indian Film festival, Boston etc. Actress Kani Kusruti won the best actress at the BRICS competition section of the 42nd Moscow Film Festival, best actress at the Caleidoscope Indian Film festival, second-best actress award at the Imagine Film Festival in Madrid, Spain, and the 2019 Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress at Kerala State Film Awards for her performance in this film.
Sruti Harihara Subramanian is a director, entrepreneur, theater actor and former Miss Chennai in 2002. Her debut feature documentary A Far Afternoon about artist Krishen Khanna got 2 national awards. Rajat Kamal Award for Best Art and Culture Film and Best Music for non-feature film at the 63rd National Film Awards. She is most notable for directing the 5 episode Amazon Exclusive musical docu-series, Harmony with A. R. Rahman and the 2017 documentary Brave and Bold.
