Indian director to call the shots at NYF 2008

Sainath Choudhury, director at Corcoise Films, will be part of the panel that will judge the entries for the film art and technique category at the New York Festivals this year. This is a first for Choudhury, though he has been a regular at other international film festivals.

The judging will take place over a span of seven days. The work, comprising about 500 odd commercials, will be judged through an online facility in India itself. The judged material will also be submitted through the same online facility. Choudhury says, “I will be looking very closely at the execution of the idea”, when asked what parameters he would keep in mind while judging the work.

The judging will begin by the end of this week and the results will be announced in about six weeks. Choudhury has earlier worked with the creative houses of JWT and Ogilvy before moving to DDB in West Asia. In early 2003, he moved to filmmaking.

In 2005, Choudhury was handpicked by Walter Salles (Central Station, Motorcycle Diaries) to shoot a short film titled Cataract, which went on to win an award at the Berlin International Film Festival 2005. His other short film, Village Football, was part of the FIFA 2006 Official Artistic and Cultural Program in Berlin, and opened at the Locarno International Film Festival 2005.

Santhosh Padhi and Meera Sharath Chandra are also judges at the New York Festivals this year, but in other categories.