Padma Shri Manoj Bajpayee And Cannes Award-Winner Shahrbanoo Sadat Join BMO IFFSA Toronto Advisory Board

Toronto, ON (Oct 19, 2019) – BMO IFFSA Toronto, the largest South Asian film festival in North America, today announced the addition of global cinema icons Mr. Manoj Bajpayee from India and Ms Shahrbanoo Sadat from Afghanistan to its advisory board. The board which is composed of highly respected global cinematic arts leaders provides guidance and advice to IFFSA and helps chart it’s roadmap.

Recipient of two National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, Asia Pacific Screen Award, and honoured in 2019 with India’s prestigious Padma Shri award for his contributions to art, the iconic Manoj Bajpayee is undoubtedly one of the most acclaimed actors in the South Asian film industry today. The young Shahrbanoo Sadat is a passionate, female writer and director, based in Kabul who, against all odds, has made a huge footprint on global cinema with her year over year success at Cannes Film Festival.

These titans join an already stellar group of celebrated filmmakers on the IFFSA Advisory Board, including Mr. Anup Singh from Switzerland and Mr Mostofa Sarwar Farooki from Bangladesh.

Mr. Anup Singh, who is also an IFFSA Ambassador, commented, “It’s a delight and an honour to welcome Manoj Bajpayee and Shahrbanoo Sadat as they join our Advisory Board at IFFSA. These two artists have proven themselves again and again as passionate, fearless and always full with the zeal of breaking new ground in their art. Their work has brought us pleasure and profound insight into cinema as well as life. We are certain that their sharing of these same qualities with us will help make IFFSA an even more enriching experience for our enthusiastic and wonderfully supportive audience.”

“We are privileged to have Mr Bajpayee and Ms. Sadat join our advisory board. Their experience and insight will add tremendous value to IFFSA.” said Sunny Gill, President of BMO IFFSA Toronto. 

BMO IFFSA Toronto is a pioneer organization devoted to advancing the development, promotion and celebration of South Asian cinematic arts in Canada. In its 9th year now, the festival has become an international icon and the voice of South Asian cinema in Canada. IFFSA’s year-round initiatives culminate in IFFSA Toronto Fortnight each May. IFFSA Toronto 2020 will be held from May 7 to 18. For more information, please visit www.iffsatoronto.com. 

About Manoj Bajpayee:
Actor/Padma Shri Awardee

Recipient of two National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, Asia Pacific Screen Award, and honoured in 2019 with India’s prestigious Padma Shri award for his contributions to art, the iconic Manoj Bajpayee is undoubtedly one of the most acclaimed actors in the industry today. He made his feature film debut in 1994, in a one-minute role in the film Drohkaal and a minor role in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen. His breakthrough role as a gangster in Satya earned him the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.

Often regarded as a method actor and a director’s actor, Bajpayee is known for his unconventional roles in films. From starring as the main lead in Shool, Tandaav and Aligarh, the villain in Aks or a supporting actor in LOC Kargil and Rajneeti, Bajpayee has effortlessly bagged nominations and awards. In 2018 he appeared in the psychological drama  Gali Guleiyan , where he played an electrician living in Old Delhi who starts losing his grasp over reality. He won the special jury national award for Pinjar (2003). His highly admired role as Sardar Khan in Anurag Kashyap’s “Gangs of Wasseyepur” in 2012 has become iconic.

Manoj Bajpayee is known for his roles as a naxalite in Chakravyu (2012) and a CBI officer in Special 26(2013). His portrayal of professor Ramchandra Siras in Hansal Mehta’s 2016 biographical drama Aligarh, won him his third best actor awards at the Filmfare critics and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2016. Most recently, Bajpayee appeared as a middle-class man who secretly works for an intelligence agency in the Amazon Prime web series drama The Family man with the Hindustan Times remarking: “Manoj Bajpayee is, as he usually tends to be, effortlessly excellent.”

About Shahrbanoo Sadat:
Director/Screenwriter

Shahrbanoo Sadat is an Afghan, female writer and director, based in Kabul. She studied at Atelier Varan in Kabul. Her first feature film Wolf and Sheep was developed with the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence in 2010, Shahr – 20 years old at the time – the youngest ever selected. The film won the main award at Director’s Fortnight 2016. Her second feature film The Orphanage is also the second part of a pentalogy, five films based on an unpublished autobiography. It has also premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.