Leena Manimekalai is a published poet and a self taught filmmaker. She is one of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts(BAFTA) - India Breakthrough Talents of the year 2022-23. Her award winning films across genres and lengths have been widely screened across the world in about hundred prestigious international film festivals. Her work of cinema verite, ‘Sengadal/the Deadsea’ on Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees and Indian Fishermen won her NAWFF Award at Tokyo for the Best Asian Woman Cinema and was recognized with prestigious Indian Panorama selections after legally winning the initial ban by the Indian Censor Board. One of her documentaries on gender justice, ‘Goddesses’ has won her Golden Conch at Mumbai IFF and Nominations for Horizon Award in Munich and Asia Pacific Screen Award in Melbourne. ‘White Van Stories’ her docu-feature on enforced disappearances in SriLanka, shot entirely underground was broadcast in Channel4 and won accolades in Aljazeera IFF. Her recent mockumentary "Is it too much to ask '' on transgender rights co-produced with NHK Japan is currently doing festival rounds and has already won Best Documentary Award at Singapore International Documentary Festival and Jury Mention at the Film South Asia, Nepal. Additionally, Leena has received the Charles Wallace Art Award, the EU Fellowship and the Commonwealth Fellowship for her work in Cinema and Gender. She has published six poetry collections and is currently editing her non-fiction feature ‘Rape Nation’ that traces the lives and struggles of rape survivors across the Indian Subcontinent. Wonder Women, a series she collaborated on as a line producer in India, won a Daytime Emmy for Best Travel and Adventure Program in 2017. ‘Maadathy- an unfairy tale’, her second feature fiction on the invisiblised dalit lives started its journey with a grand opening at 24th Busan International Film Festival with a follow up of good row of festival selections and awards including FIPRESCI JURY AWARD. She recently graduated with a Master of Fine Arts(MFA) in Film from the York University, Toronto with GFAD Fellowship. She is named the "Artist in Residence" for the year 2023 at the University of Toronto.

Artist Code: 2149