One of the most celebrated filmmakers from India. His debut film Piravi (1988) won the Caméra d’Or – Mention d’honneur at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then he made several films winning national and international recognitions. He was the premiere chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. Currently, he is the Chairman of Kerala State Film Development Corporation.

He is known for breaking barriers of music and his social interventions. In 2016 he was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for “his forceful commitment as artist and advocate to art’s power to heal India’s deep social divisions, breaking barriers of caste and class to unleash what music has to offer not just for some but for all”.

His path-breaking theatre productions transformed the scope of theatre in India. He received several national and international awards for his innovative works. Deepan served as the Artistic Director for the ITFOK festival in 2014. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Performance Studies at the Ambedkar University in Delhi.

Anamika is a social science researcher at the Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum. Her research lies at the intersection of gender, culture, politics and development in Kerala. She has written and published academic and popular articles both in English and Malayalam. It is her growing research interest in the histories, aesthetics, politics and practice of independent filmmaking that motivated her to be a part of Filmocracy Foundation.

Ashwin has a diploma in cinematography and is also specialized in video editing. He has worked as a video editor in several student films, documentaries and shorts. Ashwin aspires to make films that would inspire others.

Babu Gangadharan dropped out from College of Fine Arts, Thrissur after his disillusionment of art being hijacked by academic elitism. He went to Rasulia commune in MP to explore something more grounded, natural farming, influenced by Msanobu Fukuoaka’s book, One Straw Revolution. He then lived with the Bilala tribals in MP before joining advertising industry in Bangalore in 1989. He worked as an art director, creative director, photographer and creative consultant in Bangalore for over 25 years. He co-founded Collective Chaos, a dynamic film club in Bangalore that changed the serious film viewing culture of the city. He was also a co-editor of the club’s popular e-magazine ChaosMag. He is the founder of Healing Forests Foundation (www.healingforests.in), making Miyawaki micro-forests. He is a co-founder of Filmocracy.

Maitreyan played many roles and did many things in his extraordinary life. What makes him a unique person is that he practiced everything he believed in (well, almost everything) at every moment of his life and proved that doing so is a revolutionary act. From a sanyasi to an editor of a political magazine to an organizer of an intellectual group to a social activist to a social provocateur, he is continuously reinventing and validating his existence. He made a significant difference in areas where he intervened. Though officially retired from social activities from 2005 onwards, he is active being a catalyst through his discussions and conversations. He is a co-founder of Filmocracy.

Rajiv is a strategic marketing leader having worked with leading technology firms, responsible for branding, communications, demand generation & employee engagement. With more than 16 years of work experience in the IT sector to his credit, his key strengths are an in-depth understanding of digital marketing, sales enablement & employer branding. His expertise lies in helping organizations differentiate their USP from the clutter through fresh, creative & innovative interventions. He is deeply passionate about independent cinema and has worked on documentaries, short films and also dabbled in film marketing. His other hobbies include writing books, photography and running. Rajiv aspires to be a feature film director someday.

Rajmohan is a film blogger and serious film buff. He used to write on cinema and was the publisher of a popular portal on Malayalam independent cinema, ‘Cinema of Malayalam’. He wrote on serious cinema on his blog ‘Grahanakalam’. He was the co-founder of Collective Chaos, a vibrant film club engaged in screenings and discussions on serious cinema. The club was based in Bangalore and played a key role in shaping the film culture of the city during 2003-2007. He was also the co-editor of the club’s e-magazine, ChaosMag that had a huge readership during its time. He is a co-founder of Filmocracy.

Sanju Surendran, an Indian film maker is a graduate of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. At the Institute he picked his lessons from the legendary film maker Mani Kaul. Sanju has done a brief stint as a teacher of Film Direction and Screenwriting at the KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts, Kottayam , Kerala. His documentary on Kutiyattam, Kapila won the National award for the best documentary. Sanju’s first feature film, Aedan- Garden of Desire won multiple awards at IFFK and Kerala State Awards.

Soumya is a communications graduate from Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru. Her interest in cinema began by incessantly exploring regional films through TV and DVDs, and got closer to it after being exposed to world cinema. She has taken part in short films and has previously written articles on Malayalam cinema for Film Companion South.

After majoring in philosophy, Unni Vijayan joined FTII to study film editing. Since then he has worked as a film editor for both television and films. He made his 1st feature film ‘Lessons in Forgetting’ in 2012 which was selected in various Indian festivals abroad and India. He has got the national award twice, for editing in 1999 and for the best film in English in 2012. Presently, he teaches filmmaking in various institutions and is a script mentor. He writes scripts and also writes on cinema. He has also served in selection committees for national awards 2013 and IFFK 2019. His short film ‘Veena and Ukulele’ has been selected in various festivals like BISFF and IDSFFK, 2021 and has been awarded the best film in the 10th Ritwik Ghatak film festival in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.