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Shirley Abraham

Skoll World Forum FellowSundance Institute

Biography

Shirley Abraham is a Cannes prize-winning Indian documentary film maker. Her work is supported by the Sundance Institute, MacArthur Foundation, New York Times, IDFA Bertha Fund, Bertha Foundation, BBC, Filmmaker Fund, Catapult Film Fund and Asian Network of Documentary. She has been a fellow of Sundance Labs, Cluster of Excellence Heidelberg, TasveerGhar, India Foundation for the Arts and Goethe-Institut.

The Cinema Travellers is the debut feature documentary of Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya. The film premiered as an Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival 2016, to a standing ovation. It won the Special Jury Prize for L'Oeil d'or: Le Prix du documentaire. The film continues to have a prestigious festival run playing a hundred and twenty five film festivals worldwide. It is the first Indian documentary to have achieved the rare festival trifecta of Cannes, Toronto and New York Film Festival. The film has won nineteen awards, including the President’s Medal in India.

Shirley and Amit have recently made Searching for Saraswati, India’s first Op-Doc for the New York Times. The film is supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance Institute, Catapult Film Fund and Hartley Film Foundation.

Regional Focus

Central and Southern Asia