MIRA NAIR, Honoree

Academy Award-nominated film director Mira Nair began her career as an actor in a Theatre Action Group in New Delhi, India in 1973. She is best known for her groundbreaking films that cross borders of all kinds: Salaam Bombay! (Caméra d’Or, Cannes 1988), the pioneering Asian-African romance Mississippi Masala (1991), Golden Globe & Emmy-winning Hysterical Blindness (2001). Her international hit Monsoon Wedding (2001), for which she was the first woman to win Venice Film  Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion, is currently being transformed into a glorious musical for the stage at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Also known for her literary craftsmanship of subcontinental fiction, Mira has filmed The Namesake (2006), The Perez Family (1995), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), Vanity Fair (2004), A Suitable Boy (2020) and Queen of Katwe (2016). At home everywhere, she recently directed the TV pilot of the iconic film National  Treasure, and her next film will be AMRI, an experimental portrait of the artist Amrita Sher-Gil.

An activist by nature, Mira founded Salaam Baalak Trust for street children in 1989, and the Maisha Film Lab in East Africa to train film makers on the continent in 2004. She was awarded India’s third highest civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan, in 2012.