Shirley Abraham

Cannes prize-winning filmmaker Shirley Abraham is an Indian filmmaker and a judge at the Oscars. Shirley Abraham hails from a non-filmy background in Bhopal, India. She did her schooling at St. Joseph’s Convent School in Bhopal. Being a bright student, she always topped the class. Films were never a topic of discussion in her household, and so she had to sneak under her blankets to watch movies. Growing up, Shirley Abraham aspired to become a journalist and so opted to do her under graduation in journalism in Delhi. And then, she pursued her post-graduation in Mass Communication at AJK Mass Communication Centre in Jamia Millia Islamia.

Once she graduated, Shirley Abraham realized filmmaking was her true calling. Shirley Abraham, along with her JMI batch mate Amit Mahadesiya, directed a documentary on traveling cinemas of India and made the film The Cinema Travellers in 2015. The film was written, produced, directed, and edited by both of them. The Cinema Travellers result from their five years of hard work. The documentary shows the showmen riding in the cinema trucks and, showing the people from faraway villages, the wonder of movies. The film beautifully captured the emotions of the people and left a mark in the hearts of the audience. In May 2016, The Cinema Travellers got premiered as an Official Selection at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and also becoming the only Indian film to be achieving the feat.

Also, it became the only Indian documentary to be invited to the Cannes, Toronto Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. Shirley Abraham and Amit Mahadesiya won the L’Œil d’or: Le Prix du documentaire Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival. Apart from this, they have won about 19 prestigious awards at several National and International events. Shirley Abraham received the National Film Award – Special Jury Award (Non-Feature Film) at the 64th National Film Awards The National Film Awards gets presented every year >> Read More... . Post the success of The Cinema Travellers, Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya made the documentary Searching for Saraswati in 2018.

The movie became the first Indian documentary to be selected for New York Time’s Op-Doc project. In 2019, they released their third documentary, The Hour of Lynching: Vigilante Violence in India. In 2020, Shirley Abraham got selected to be one of the judges for the Oscars among 12 Indians. She owns a production house, along with Amit Madheshiya, called Cave Pictures since 2015, under which they released all of her works. Also, Shirley Abraham has directed documentaries for Door darshan, the Guardian, and Al Jazeera English. Including Pulitzer Center and New York Times, she gets support from many foundations.