Dar Gai, Payal Kapadia, Shalini Agarwal named among 250 film professionals to take part in Berlinale Talents programme

The Berlinale Talents programme has named eight film professionals from India as part of their upcoming programme at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival being held from 9 to 14 February 2019. They include filmmaker Dar Gai, editor Sanglap Bhowmick, film critic and journalist Poulomi Das, director Payal Kapadia, cinematographer and director Subal KR, sound designer Shalini Agarwal, distributor and sales agent Shraddha Chauhan, and producer Dheer Momaya.

The diverse group of 141 women and 109 men from 77 countries, and across all fields of filmmaking, will come together to “share ideas, network, and further develop their latest projects” according to the press release shared by the festival today. They have been selected not only for this artistic endeavours, but the programme also “takes into account how social and economic contexts in their countries of origin are reflected in their work and how the films feed into debates about the future that are taking place there”.

Ukranian filmmaker Dar Gai, who has lived in India for many years now, has been taking her latest film, Namdev Bhau: In Search of Silence (2018), across the festival circuit. Director Payal has made short films like the experimental The Last Mango Before The Monsoon (2015), the drama Afternoon Clouds (2017), and documentary And What Is The Summer Saying (2018).

Sound designer Shalini Agarwal has worked on films like Highway (2014), Raabta (2017), Phobia (2018) and Widow of Silence (2018).

Sound mixer and designer Shalini Agarwal: Good sound design begins from the script

The eight talents from India will work with other professionals from across the globe like Israel’s Guy Nemesh, an editor who worked on Foxtrot (2018) and Germany’s Christopher Aoun, a cinematographer who worked on Capernaum (2018), recently nominated from Best Film Not in the English Language at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award.

Previous talents who also attended the programme, like filmmaker David Lowery and cinematographer Diego García, will speak to the group about their expertise.

The press release also states that 42 from the group will receive mentoring at the Project Labs to develop their work and eight of Talent Press film critics will talk about the films and themes playing at this year’s festival. They will also discuss the changing role of journalists at film festivals like Berlin.