MIRA NAIR INDIAN LIONESS

Accomplished Film Director/Writer/Producer Mira Nair was born in India and educated at Delhi University and at Harvard. She began her film career as an actor and then turned to directing award-winning documentaries, including: 'So Far From India' and 'India Cabaret'. Her debut feature film, 'Salaam Bombay!' was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988; it won the Camera D'Or (for best first feature) and the Prix du Publique (for most popular entry) at the Cannes Film Festival and 25 other international awards. Her next film, Mississippi Masala, an interracial love story set in the American South and Uganda, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, won three awards at the Venice Film Festival including Best Screenplay and The Audience Choice Award. Nair directed 'My Own Country' based on Dr. Abraham Verghese's best-selling memoir about a young immigrant doctor dealing with the AIDS epidemic was awarded the NAACP award for best fiction feature. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, Monsoon Wedding also won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and opened worldwide to tremendous critical and commercial acclaim. Mirabai Films has established an annual filmmaker's laboratory, Maisha, which will be dedicated to the support of visionary screenwriters and directors in East Africa and India. Her films are studies in cross-cultural identity as her characters negotiate the complexities of life while also honoring their heritage. Nair is intimately aware of the conflicts and joys associated with nostalgia for home and outsider status. She explained to Chicago Tribune, "I'm interested in marginal people, or people who are considered marginal…. I'm interested in capturing the complexity of people and the complexity of life."

FILMOGRAPHY
Jama Street Masjid Journal (1979)
So Far From India (1982)
India Cabaret (1985)
Children of a Desired Sex (1987)
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Mississippi Masala (1991)
The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993)
The Perez Family (1995)
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)
My Own Country (1998)
(Showtime) Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Hysterical Blindness (2002)
11'9"01 September 11 (2002)
Still, The Children are Here (2003)
Vanity Fair (2004)
The Namesake (2006)
Migration.. (2007)
New York, I Love You (2009)
8 (2008)
Amelia (2009)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)

NOTABLE AWARDS
1985: Best Documentary Film, Global Village Film Festival: India Cabaret
1986: Golden Athena, Athens International Film Festival: India Cabaret
1986: Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival: India Cabaret
1988: Audience Award, Cannes Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
1988: Golden Camera (Best First Film), Cannes Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
1988: National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi: Salaam Bombay!
1988: National Board of Review Award for Top Foreign Films: Salaam Bombay!
1988: "Jury Prize", "Most Popular Film" and "Prize of the Ecumenical Jury" at Montreal World Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
1988: New Generation Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
1988: Lilian Gish Award (Excellence in Feature Film), Los Angeles Women in Film Festival: Salaam Bombay!
1991: Golden Osella (Best Original Screenplay), Venice Film Festival: Mississippi Masala (with Sooni Taraporevala)[33]
1992: Best Director (Foreign Film), Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Mississippi Masala
1992: Asian Media Award, Asian American International Film Festival
1993: Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature: Mississippi Masala
2001: Golden Lion (Best Film), Venice Film Festival: Monsoon Wedding
2001: Laterna Magica Prize, Venice Film Festival: Monsoon Wedding
2002: Audience Award, Canberra International Film Festival: Monsoon Wedding
2002: Special Award for International Cinema, Zee Cine Awards: Monsoon Wedding
2002: UNESCO Award, Venice Film Festival: 11'9"01 September 11
2004: Faith Hubley Web of Life Award, Rochester-High Falls International Film Festival
2007: "Golden Aphrodite", Love is Folly International Film Festival (Bulgaria): The Namesake
2012: Padma Bhushan by Govt. of India