The Berlin film festival 2017 will see five filmmakers and creative people from India joining 245 other film aficionados from around the world as part of a special talent hunt.
Natasha Mendonca, Archana Phadke, Shubhashish Bhutiani, Abhro Banerjee and Archana Nathan have been picked by the Berlinale Talents Programme to be part of the prestigious film festival that opens on 9 February.
Natasha Mendonca's debut feature film Strange Love/Ajeeb Aashiq was featured at the Rotterdam film festival in 2016 and won her a nomination to the Bright Future award last year.
Shubhashish Bhutiani got rave reviews for his first film Mukti Bhawan/Hotel Salvation which was premiered at the Venice festival last year.
Archana Phadke is a director and editor who is better known for her work as screenplay writer and editor of the documentary Placebo (2014). Placebo was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Brooklyn festival.
Abhro Banerjee is editor of documentaries such as Fireflies In The Abyss (2015) while Archana Nathan is a film critic with The Hindu newspaper.
These individuals will have the opportunity to take part in several interactions and masterclasses as well as a range of project workshops for specific film professionals. The Berlin festival opens on 9 February and will continue till 17 February.