Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Shirley Abraham is a Cannes prize-winning Indian documentary filmmaker. Her work is supported by Sundance Institute, MacArthur Foundation, The New York Times, The Guardian, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, Field of Vision, IDFA Bertha Fund, Catapult Film Fund and the BBC. She has been a fellow of Sundance Labs, Cluster of Excellence Heidelberg and Goethe-Institut. Shirley is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Cinema Travellers, co-directed with Amit Madheshiya, is her debut film. It premiered as an Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival in 2016. It won the Special Jury Prize for L’Oeil d’or: Le Prix du documentaire. The film has since played 125 festivals, and won nineteen awards globally, including the President’s Medal in India. They have also directed Searching for Saraswati (The New York Times) and The Hour of Lynching (The Guardian). The Hour of Lynching won a World Press Photo and the Sandford St Martin Journalism Award.
Shirley has presented her work at conferences and universities around the world. She has been a juror at festivals including CPH:DOX and the Mumbai International Film Festival. She has also served as a panellist for evaluation of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Fund proposals.
