Jane Campion has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 edition of Imagineindia International Film Festival to be held in Madrid.

This is what she said to Imagineindia:

“I went to India in my 30’s and I met yoga mother or Mrs. Dayas. She lived in Jaipur and she taught me yoga. Her and her family also visited me to Sydney AUSTRALIA and one way or another We tried to see each other every year. When I was developing the idea of HOLY SMOKE, which I wrote with my sister Anna Campion, I partly wanted to do it so I could see my Indian family and they could help me with the filming so that’s really my connection to India it was all through Yoga mother and the DAYA’S family of Jaipur. My friendship with them and my love of India which is on going has really enriched my life.”

Elizabeth Jane Campion  (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), for which she has received two Academy Awards (including Best Director for the latter), two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Campion was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to film.

Ruchika Oberoi is a Film Director and Screenwriter. Her debut feature film ISLAND CITY premiered at Venice Days, 72nd Venice Film Festival (2015), winning the FEDEORA Critics Award for Best Debut Director. The film traveled to over 30 International Film Festivals, including Karlovy Vary, Tallinn Black Nights, Stockholm, Cairo, Warsaw and Beijing. She won the Best Screenplay award at the New York Indian Film Festival and the Best Director award at ImagineIndia Film Festival, Madrid. She was nominated for the Transilvania Trophy at Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania and for Best Film at Bratislava, Slovakia. She was also nominated for Best Debut Director at the Filmfare and Star Screen Awards in India. The film stars Vinay Pathak, Amruta Subhash and Tannishtha Chatterjee.

Rituparna Sengupta is Indian actress and producer who is known for her work in Bengali, Odia and Hindi cinema. One of the most successful actresses of Bengali cinema, she rode the crest of her box office success in the late 1990s. She has won a National Award, two Filmfare Awards, four BFJA Awards and four Anandalok Awards.

Rituparna was born on 7 November 1970. She was interested in the arts since a young age and learned painting, dancing, singing and handicrafts at a painting school, called Chitrangshu. She studied at Carmel High school, and later graduated in history from Lady Brabourne College. She began studying Modern History for an M.A. at University of Calcutta, but had to interrupt studies to concentrate on her career as an actress.

Rita Azevedo Gomes is an independent filmmaker who, since 1989, the year of her first feature film, has been recognized for her quality and autonomy in the film industry. Her films have been acclaimed by both national and international critics and have been selected for various film festivals worldwide. She has received numerous awards and has been honoured with retrospectives of her work. She is frequently invited to participate in symposiums, master classes, and debates.

She has been active in the fields of Cinema, Theatre, Opera, and other artistic domains since the early 1970s. As a filmmaker, after her debut feature film, “The Sound of the Shaking Earth” (1989), she persisted with determination in her cinematic endeavors. Nearly a decade passed, and in 2001, she directed her second feature film, “Fragile as the World,” which was enthusiastically received at the Venice Film Festival and highly praised by critics.

Dr. Anjali Monteiro retired recently as Professor and Dean from the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She is a documentary filmmaker, media researcher and teacher. Jointly with K.P. Jayasankar, she has made over 40 documentary films, many of which have been screened at film festivals, winning thirty-three awards. She writes on documentary film, media, and cultural studies. She has co-authored the national award-winning book A Fly in the Curry: Independent Documentary Film in India (Sage, 2016). Her recent publications include the co-edited volumes, DigiNaka: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-Capitalist India,Orient Blackswan, 2020 and Many Voices, Many Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India, Sage, 2021.

Born in Munich Germany, and after receiving her MA in Photography & Video, Daniela Creutz moved to New York City where she completed her postgraduate film program (directing, screenplay & acting) at Tisch School of the Arts, NY Atlantic Theatre Company and NY Film Academy. Shortly after, she founded her own film production, B/C/P (BlueCirceProductions LLC) and lived and worked in New York City for 15 years. Initially, she was hired as a designer for broadcasters such as ABC Network and CBS Studios, but then increasingly produced independent films, especially documentary films, fiction short films, corporate and image films, which she wrote and directed. The development, as well as the creative and technical realization of different film topics – from research to writing treatments and screenplays, up to the final postproduction – have been Daniela’s core competence for many years.