Pune International Film Festival

Aparna Sen

Aparna Sen was born into a family of film lovers. Her father, the noted film critic, film historian and filmmaker Chidananda Dasgupta, was a founder member of the Calcutta Film Society along with Satyajit Ray. Aparna made her debut as an actress in 1961, in Satyajit Ray's Two Daughters. She has since acted in the films of several noted film directors including Mrinal Sen, James Ivory, Tapan Sinha and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Aparna's directorial debut 36 Chowringhee Lane, (1981) won the Grand Prix (The Golden Eagle) at the Manila IFF (1982). She received the National Award for Best Direction for the same film. Mr and Mrs Iyer, an English language film by her, won several awards including the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at the Hawaii, and Las Palmas Film Festivals. It has also won the National Awards for Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Actress in the year 2003. She has served on jury panel at several international film festivals such as - India (1976); Moscow (1989); Hawaii (1991) where she served as the Chairperson of the jury; Cairo (1999), Pusan(2003) and Locarno (2005). Aparana was honoured with the prestigious Padmashree Award in 1986 in recognition of her contribution to cinema.

Jerzy Stuhr

Jerzy Stuhr (b. 18 April 1947 , Kraków) is one of the most popular, influential and versatile Polish film and theatre actors. He also works as a screenwriter, film director (he directed 7 films between 1994-2014) and drama professor. He got many significant international and Polish awards connected with his professional activities; he invited as a juror of many international film festivals. He is a member of European Film Academy since 1998. As an actor, he has worked in many Polish, Italian and other international projects such as: Michelle Sordillo’s film La vita altrui(The Other’s Life), Nanni Moretti's films Il Caimano (2006) and Habemus Papam (2010), in two films by Roman Kochanov, Russian film Down House (2000), and the Israeli-Russian film Arie (2004). Having met film director Krzysztof Kieślowski in the mid-1970s, Jerzy has worked extensively with him till his death. In the 1970’s he beacame an actor of the “cinema of moral anxiety”. Being integral part of influential generation in Polish cinema, he has worked closely with directors like: Agnieszka Holland, Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi.

Jorge Arriagada

Jorge Arriagada, Chilean-French composer. He studied composition and conducting in Chile. In 1966 he obtained a four years scholarship from the French government to work with Max Deutsch, Pierre Boulez, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Schaeffer. In 1972, with a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, he investigated techniques of electronic music at Stanford University, California. Composer of symphonies, chamber and electroacoustic music. Since 1977 he works mainly for film scores, composing the music for over 150 films from around thirty filmmakers, including: Barbet Schroeder, Olivier Assayas, Patricio Guzman, Benoit Jacquot, Orson Welles and 46 films with Raul Ruiz. He has been a jury in several film festivals, including San Sebastian, Sao Paulo, Valencia, among others.

Gowri Ramnarayan

Playwright, theatre director, journalist ( served The Hindu for 23 years), vocal accompanist to legendary musician MS Subbulakshmi, Dr Gowri Ramnarayan is a rare amalgam of aesthetics and scholarship. Her witty, thought-provoking, visually interesting plays make original use of music, poetry, dance and painting. Founder of JustUs Repertory, Ramnarayan’s multi-lingual and multi-genre theatre productions have been staged in major Indian and north American cities. She has translated two plays by eminent Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar, and served as Fipresci Jury member at international film festivals in London, Oslo, Valladolid, Venice and Mumbai. She is Chairperson, Rukmini Devi Arundale Trust, Senior Associate, Sruti magazine, member, Regional Advisory Committee, ICCR, Chennai, and on the guest faculty at Asian College of Journalism and the Kalakshetra Foundation.

Narges Abyar

Narges Abyar Born in 1972 in Tehran. Narges Abyar received her BA in Persian Literature and as an established writer, she’s already published 30 story and fiction and novels for children, young adults as well as the adults. She started making short films and her first short film was “Kind Dead End (2006) and her first documentary, “One Day After the 10th Day” in 2007. Her other films are “Mama Maryam” (documentary, 2009), “Nasur” (short film, 2009), “My Story is not a Crow” (documentary, 2011), “Silent Scream” (documentary, 2012), “Black Pear” (documentary, 2012), “Objects in the Mirror Are Closer than They Appear” (feature film, 2013), “Track 143” (feature film, 2014) and “Breath” (feature film, 2016), which premiered at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival and received Best Director Award.

Bennett Rathnayake

Bennett rathnayake started his professional career as a mathematics teacher and after two years of teaching,he joined sri lanka customs department as an senior investigation officer. From childhood onwards he was avidly devoted to the film medium and was was a dedicated viewer of classical movies around the world. This impressive synthesis making him a self made and self educated film maker. In 2001, he made his directing debut working on his own script and presented "ASWESUMA "(the compensation) .Aswesuma won 12 national awards and six international awards including Best Directors award. In 2004, he made "Sulanga"(The wind) and 2009 ,"Ira Handa Yata"(under the sun and moon).These two films also widely exhibited locally and internationally and won many awards. He has very recently completed his latest movie titled "Nela "and awaiting for the theatrical release. Further to his credits he has directed 10 television series which were well received by local television viewers. At present he is the President of the Film Directors guild of srilanka.

Pablo S. Naranjo Golborne

Pablo S. Naranjo Golborne has over 13 years of professional experience in film, music and theatre and has held positions such as artistic director of the music department in the north of Sweden, where he developed a visual-oriented music program in collaboration with internationally famous composers. He has been a guest professor at Beijing Film Academy, where he taught editing-narrative using his own mentorship-oriented method. He has also held Master Classes about non-narrative "free flux" film-making at the European Film College and taught screenwriting, directing and editing at art schools in Denmark and South America while privately mentoring a number of established composers, directors and actors during the years. His artistic work encompasses screenplays for fiction and documentary, lyrics for contemporary operas and Latin jazz, as well as directing television, radio, opera & film.

Jury 2017

Jury 2017

Animation Jury

Festival Office