29th International Film Festival of Kerala 2024

Nomuunzul Turmunkh is a talented screenwriter and director known for her work in Mongolian cinema. She wrote the screenplay for the feature film Life, which was released on March 8, 2018. She also served as the First Assistant Director and Executive Producer for The Sales Girl, released on September 25, 2021. In 2023, she worked as the First Assistant Director for the feature film Restart. Additionally, she was the screenwriter and First Assistant Director for Silent City Driver, which won award at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Turmunkh's contributions to these films highlight her versatility and dedication to the craft of filmmaking.

Gulbara Tolomushova is a distinguished film critic and historian from Kyrgyzstan. She graduated from the film studies and screenwriting department of The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. She is the Member of the Kyrgyz Filmmakers Union, FIPRESCI, and NETPAC. She is  a specialist at the Bishkek Cinema House, Kyrgyz Ministry for Culture, Information and Tourism’s Cinema department. She writes for the “Forum” magazine (published by the Intergovernmental Foundation for Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation, Moscow). Gulbarga is the author of “Kinostan Territory. Faces of Kyrgyz Cinema” and “Powerful Fragility and Cruel Art. Women in Kyrgyz Cinema”.

Deepa Gahlot is a critic, columnist, editor and author. She writes extensively on cinema, theatre, the arts, women's issues for several publications and websites including her own, deepagahlot.com. She has won the National Award for Best Film Criticism. She has edited several cinema journals, her work has appeared in anthologies on women's studies and cinema – Bollywood Popular Indian Cinema, Behind the Scenes of Hindi Cinema A Visual Journey through the Heart of Bollywood,  Janani, Bollywood's Top 20: Superstars of Indian Cinema, Legends of Indian Silver Screen: The Winners of Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1992-2014), The Oldest Love Story. Her books, The Prithviwallahs (co-authored with Shashi Kapoor), and biographies of Shah Rukh Khan and Shammi Kapoor, Take 2: 50 Films that Deserve a New Audience and Sheroes: 25 Daring Women of Bollywood have been published. She is currently consulting editor for mumbaitheatreguide.com

Agnès Godard is a renowned French cinematographer. She studied at the famed Paris film school IDHEC. Following her first job as a cinematographer on Wim Wenders' Chambre 666 (1982), Godard continued to work on Wenders projects as well as on films by Joseph Losey and Agnès Varda. Befriending another IDHEC graduate, Claire Denis, Godard became one of Denis' closest collaborators, shooting almost all of her films since 1990 while also working with a number of remarkable directors – including André Téchiné and Claude Berri. Her first collaboration with Denis was on the director's debut feature, Chocolat. Godard has received numerous accolades for her work, including a César Award for Best Cinematography. At Cannes 2021, Agnès Godard received the Pierre Angénieux Tribute, given for a director of photography’s impact on the history of world cinema.

Nana Jorjadze is a renowned Georgian filmmaker. She has dabbled in various forms of art and creation throughout her career, including architect, actress, costume designer, set designer, writer and ultimately filmmaker. Jorjadze's directorial debut, Robinsonada or My English Grandfather (1987), won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She has directed several acclaimed films, including A Chef in Love (1996), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Her other notable works include 27 Missing Kisses (2000) and The Rainbowmaker (2008).

Marcos Loayza is a distinguished Bolivian film director and screenwriter. He is celebrated for his contributions to Latin American cinema and is considered one of the prominent filmmakers in the region. Loayza's directorial debut, Cuestión de fe (1995) received international acclaim and won several awards, including the Best First Feature at the Havana Film Festival. His other notable works include Escrito en el agua (1998), El corazón de Jesús (2003) and  Averno (2018).

Mikayel Dovlatyan is a prominent Armenian film director and actor. He is known for his contributions to Armenian cinema and his unique storytelling style. Dovlatyan was born and raised in Yerevan. He pursued his passion for cinema and graduated from the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinematography. Dovlatyan's career spans several decades, during which he has directed and acted in numerous films. Some of his notable works include: Demqov depi pate (1990), La vallée de la lune (1994), Our Yard (1996).

Monjul Baruah’s first feature film as a director, Antareen won numerous awards at different film festivals. The film also bagged the first Sailadhar Baruah Film Award in 2016. His second feature film is Kaaneen. The third is the recently completed film, Anur (Eyes on the Sunshine), based on a story by Sahitya Academy award winning Assamese writer Anuradha Sharma Pujaree was screened at the IFFK in 2022. Monjul has done many documentaries as well.

Martina is currently working as a managing editor at the Czech Radio. She also writes articles and essays about films and festivals in various  Czech and Slovak media. She visits major film festivals like Cannes, Berlin and Karlovy Vary. Spent eight years in Australia where she worked as a journalist at public multilingual Radio SBS. Back to Europe, she founded the Aussie and Kiwi Film Fest in Prague in 2014, a festival of Australian and New Zealand films which is running annually in Prague. Martina is also involved in the organisation of the Czech and Slovak Film Festival in Australia, which takes place in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide.

Rosana develops StyleFeelFree (SFF magazine) in 2010, an international cultural publication for Spanish-speaking that seeks to promote humanist values. She writes about cinema and Art. She collaborates with Universities and colleges teaching Cinema and Art writing. Currently, she is part of the Selection Committee of the German Film Fest Madrid, as a programmer, and Gijon International Film Festival as a consultant. She writes on art house cinema promoting a gender perspective that seeks to promote equality. She is a member of FIPRESCI and she has been part of different juries as SEMINCI (Spain) and Bengaluru (India). She is a regular participant at Cannes, Venice and Berlinale, among others.

Sachin Chatte is a film critic with a career in film criticism spanning three decades, beginning in 1993. Since 1998, he has been a film critic with The Navhind Times, Goa, and has also contributed to numerous other publications. He is a member of FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) and, in addition to his role as a critic, he curates films for the Cinephile Film Club under the Entertainment Society of Goa and has participated in various juries. He teaches Film Appreciation at Goa University and several other colleges throughout the State.

V K Joseph is a media and film critic, writer and cultural activist. In 2007 he won the President of India's National Film Award for critic of the year. He has published five books on cinema, winning the Kerala State Government award for Film and
Ideology. He has worked as chief co-ordinator and vice-chairman of the International Film Festival of Kerala and is the President of the FIPRESCI, India. He has also been the chief co-ordinator and director of a workshop on short film and documentary-making for women, organised in association with Jan-Vrijman Fund Amsterdam.

Namrata Rao is a Indian director and editor with over a decade of experience. After graduating from Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Namrata started with editing acclaimed documentaries and expanded to feature films. She has received
accolades for her work such as Love Sex Aur Dhokha, and Band Baaja Baaraat, a popular rom-com with international releases. In 2013, Namrata won the National Award for Best Editing for the critically acclaimed Kahaani. Her editing credits include Made In Heaven (Amazon Prime), and the Netflix docu-series House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths. Namrata's directorial debut, the documentary series Angry Voung Men, is on the lives of the legendary screenwriting duo Salim-Javed, who revolutionised Hindi cinema with their writing

Ahsan Kabir Liton is the Deputy Director (Drama) at the Rajshahi University, Bangladesh. He made his first film The Flag in 2007. He is associated with the Rajshahi Film Society and Ritwik Ghatak Film Society. The latter is to preserve the works and ancestral history of Ritwik Ghatak who spent his childhood and youth in Rajshahi. He has been serving as the President of Bangladesh International Children's Film Festival. He is a television drama director and writer. His films include In Search of Soil, Mirobatar Sampno, Journey to the Root and Golpoloker Chitroker. He was awarded bi Rajshahi Shilpakala Academy in 2017 for his contribution to cinema. He is behind the Film and Cultural Archive in Rajshahi.