The IAWRT-Shaw Memorial Fellowship is an annual fellowship of ₹30,000, instituted by our member, Padmaja Shaw, in the memory of her late husband, Rajendra Shaw. Rajendra Shaw (1949-2013) graduated from FTII Pune in 1975 and worked his entire professional life in the social communication sector – developing support materials to teach and train people in visual and text documentation. He also mentored young people in photography, and textual documentation, videography and video-editing. The fellowship seeks to increase the representation of Dalit/Adivasi/Minority women in the media. The fellowship is open to all eligible applicants without requiring an institutional collaboration.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
- The fellowship is given only to an SC/ST woman. In the absence of an SC/ST candidate, it may be granted to a deserving Muslim woman candidate.
- The applicant must have completed her training in the media/ film/ communication from a reputed and recognised media institute.
- The applicant should have passed out from her media institute not earlier than a year of applying.
- Applications will be called for every August. Announcements will be made on IAWRT’s social media.
Previous Awardees:
Anukriti Lal
Jhansy G D Marak
The Jai Chandiram Memorial Fellowship, instituted in her memory, is awarded every 2 years for a period of 18 months. The Fellowship amount of ₹60,000 is given to members of the India Chapter of IAWRT on the basis of an open call. The Jury consists of IAWRT members.
The 6th JCMF (2024-26) was awarded to IAWRT member Yashodara Udupa. Yashodara will use the grant to fund a second round of filming with three residents of Ersama in rural Odisha. This will help her complete a film on the consequences of the transition from rice cultivation to aquaculture on both the community and the future of the fragile coastal area. The film is based on the research by Garima Jain.
Earlier Fellowships were awarded to the following IAWRT members:
i) Iram Ghufran (2014-16)
ii) Debjani Mukherjee (2016-18)
iii) Madhumanti Sengupta (2018-20)
iv) a project proposed collaboratively by IAWRT members Bina Paul, Reena Mohan and Surabhi Sharma (2020-22)
- v) Teena Kaur Pasricha (2022-24)
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The Fellowship is open for a member of the India chapter of IAWRT who has been a member for a minimum of two years and has paid all her dues till date. A member who has been awarded a fellowship once cannot apply for another fellowship for the next two cycles. The call is usually sent out in October every two years.
Manjira Datta (1949-2019) was an artist, social critic, activist and pioneering filmmaker. Her documentaries probed ideas of social justice, community, international development, class and gender equality, and spirituality & the body. These documentaries made between 1985 and 2005, some in 16mm and eventually in the digital format, include several masterpieces of Indian independent documentary – from ‘Sacrifice of Babulal Bhuiya’ (1988) to ‘Portraits from a Dream Show’ (1991).
The Grant has been instituted by Manjira’s siblings to remember and celebrate her work and the ideals she lived for. The award of Rs 50,000 will be given through an open call in November – December each year.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Women documentary filmmakers can apply with details of any project they are working on, at any stage of filmmaking – research, prep,production or post-production. The final outcome could be a piece of research, a film, a short AV, or a multimedia project. The filmmaker could use the grant money to fund a research trip, part of their filming or to finish their edit. Only Indian PAN holders will be considered for the grant.
The IAWRT-Chandiram Fellowship is awarded each year to IAWRT members who take up the work of archiving a piece of IAWRT’s history in a concrete way. It is given at the discretion of the Board.
The first fellowship (2024-25) has been given to Deepika Sharma to put together an exhibition to celebrate the 20 years of the Asian Women’s Film Festival.