Ashvin Kumar

Writer | Director | Actor | Producer 

Ashvin is a writer / director / actor / producer with an Oscar® nomination for “Little Terrorist” (2005) also, nominated for European Film Academy | honourable mention BAFTA/LA, Aspen | Grand Prize,  Tehran Film Festival | 1st Prize, Montreal Film Festival | Best Film - Docufest FF, Flanders FF, Manhattan FF | Audience Award, Almeria En Corto | Winner, Best Short Film, Satyajit Ray Film awards | Bell Expressvu Award, Reelworld FF, Canada | Silver Conch, MIFF (Mumbai) | Winner, Montreal, Sao Paulo, Luciana (Italy), Salento, Sousse (Tuniese), Temecula Valley, Alternative Film Festival (Romania) | in competition Tribeca, Telluride, Sydney, Bangkok, Palm Springs, London, Chicago Children’s FF, Berlin Shorts FF, Motovun FF, Odense, San Francisco, Tampere, Tobor, Asiana | and over 150 other film festivals.

His latest feature film, “No Fathers in Kashmir” Alumni, Sundance Lab / Development Grant, Asia Pacific Screen Awards released theatrically in the UK (2020) to glowing reviews from Hollywood actor Joanna Lumley, BBC’s Mark Kermode, Sight & Sound with 4 stars each from UK’s Time Out, Total Film, Morning Star, Eye For The Film, Daily Express. Its Indian theatrical release (2019) saw critical acclaim from Alia Bhatt, Mira Nair, Shabana Azmi, Shashi Tharoor, Aparna Sen, Kalki Koechlin with glowing reviews in Huff Post and 4.5 stars from Rediff, 4 stars each from Times of India, Film Curry, Republic World, Desi Martini.

He is also a two-time National Award winner for his feature documentaries “Inshallah, football” (2010) Jury Prize winner Dubai FF | winner AND grant - Busan Film Festival | official selections of  Chicago & Pusan and “Inshallah, Kashmir” (2012) also, Al Jazeera Doc Film Festival. Other films include road-movie “Road to Ladakh” (2004) official selections, Raindance & Vancouver Film Festivals | 2004 starring Irrfan Khan. “Dazed in Doon” (2010), an educational-filmmaking experience, teaching 60 school-going teens of Doon School, India while creating a feature film. And, thriller “The Forest” (2009), Raindance & Stiges Film Festivals released theatrically in India in 2012. He has also made short documentaries - “I am Not Here” (2015) about undocumented migrants in Switzerland, USA and Malaysia, commissioned by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and, “4 Daughters in Kashmir” (2021).

Ashvin spent the lockdown writing a romantic feature film, “Swift Desire” and is in development with four other feature-films across genres – a comedy, thriller, drama and coming-of-age - two of which are ready to film in 2021. He is in early development with feature film set across India, Britain and France, set in the 1800s. He also took the opportunity to realise a long awaited passion : teaching filmmaking. Ashvin breaks down the mysteries of cinema in a series of online film-making classes for aspiring filmmakers which will roll out on YouTube and on his website in 2021. 

Before he took to making films, Ashvin worked as an actor and director in theatre appearing in productions like Harold Pinter’s One For The Road, Moliere’s A Physician Inspite of Himself, Beckett’s Krapps Last Tape, Ionessco’s The Lesson and founded one of the first digital post-production studios in India in 1996. He is a voting member of the European Film Academy and TEDx speaker. He mentors aspiring film-makers, inviting them to be a part of his film-crew and sharing his passion for filmmaking.