MIRA NAIR was born in India and educated at Delhi University as well as Harvard University. She directed several award-winning documentaries, among them So Far from India and India Cabaret, before making her stunning feature directorial debut with Salaam Bombay! The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film, and Ms. Nair was honored at the 1988 Cannes International Film Festival with the Camera d'Or (for Best First Feature) as well as the Prix du Publique (Audience Award).
Her subsequent films as director include Mississippi Masala (which was honored at the 1991 Venice International Film Festival for its screenplay, and with the Audience Award), The Perez Family, the arthouse hit Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (which she co-wrote), and My Own Country (for Showtime).
Ms. Nair returned to documentary filmmaking with The Laughing Club of India, which won the Special Jury Prize in the 2000 Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels. The short film premiered domestically in August 2001 on Cinemax and spawned a companion "virtual laughing club" online.
Her exuberant ensemble comedy Monsoon Wedding won the top prize (the Golden Lion Award) at the 2001 Venice International Film Festival, the first Indian film to do so in 44 years and only the third film directed by a woman ever to do so in 58 years. Monsoon Wedding went on to critical and commercial success all over the world, becoming one of the Top 10 highest-grossing foreign-language movies of all time in the U.S., and was a Golden Globe Award nominee for Best Foreign-Language Film.
Ms. Nair next directed the feature Hysterical Blindness for HBO, which aired in August 2002 to critical acclaim and high ratings. Uma Thurman earned a Golden Globe Award for her performance, while Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara were honored with Emmy Awards for their portrayals. The film also won an Emmy Award for Main Title Design.
In 2002, she directed a short film for inclusion in the multipart feature 11'09"01, which received a Cr Award nomination. The other filmmakers from around the world who responded to the horrific events of September 11th, 2001 by contributing to the project were Sean Penn, Youssef Chahine, Amos Gitai, Shohei Imamura, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Samira Makhmalbaf, Alejandro Gonzz Iitu, Idrissa Ouedraogo, and Danis Tanovic. Ms. Nair's film retold true events in the lives of the Hamdani family of Queens, NY, as a mother would not give up the search for her missing son.
Ms. Nair was recently appointed as the mentor in film by the prestigious Rolex Prot Arts Initiative, joining fellow mentors Jessye Norman, Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Saburo Teshigawara to help guide young artists in critical stages of their development.
Her upcoming projects include adaptations of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake and Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist, as well as a film version of Tony Kushner's play Homebody/Kabul for HBO. Her production company, Mirabai Films, is establishing an annual filmmaker's laboratory, Maisha, in East Africa and India for young filmmakers. The first lab, focusing on screenwriting, will be launched in August 2005 in Kampala, Uganda.
Ms. Nair is also overseeing development and production of three independent Asian feature films, for the global marketplace, as part of the Intl. Bhenji [Sisters] Brigade (IBB) partnership that she recently formed with Bala Entertainment International and Venkateshwara Hatcheries.
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