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P. S. Vinothraj
Born
P.S Vinothraj

(1988-06-18) 18 June 1988 (age 36)
NationalityIndian
OccupationFilm director Screenwriter

P. S. Vinothraj (born 18 June 1988) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He wrote and directed the critically-acclaimed Tamil film, Pebbles (Koozhangal) which is also his debut film. Pebbles was screened at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam held in Netherlands on 4 February 2021, where it received the Tiger Award at the festival.[1] It is the second Indian film to win this prestigious award. It was selected as the Indian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.[2][3] [4]

Early life

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Vinothraj's father died when Vinothraj was in class 4.[5] He had to drop out of school and work in the flower markets of Madurai as a daily wage labourer.[5] He went to Tiruppur at the age of 14 to work there in one of the town's textile factories. He joined a tutorial college and studied there for a couple of years. Eventually, seeing his fellow co-workers have their lives destroyed, he decided to leave the place and go to Chennai and work in cinema.[6]

Film career

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Vinothraj was fascinated with cinema after seeing a film shooting when he was a child.[7] In Chennai he got a job as an employee at a DVD shop. He worked there for five years and during that time he used to talk to various film directors and assistant directors and others working in cinema.[8] He watched a lot of films, especially foreign films. He doesn't understand English and could not understand the subtitles in foreign language films, so eventually, he started watching visually-striking films that he could understand without subtitles.[9]

He got work as an assistant director in some short films in the Nalaiya Iyakkunar TV Program using the contacts he got from working in the DVD shop. Later, he met A. Sarkunam, the Tamil film director whose films include Kalavani and Vaagai Sooda Vaa. He then went on to work as an assistant director in the Tamil feature film Manjapai (2013), directed by Raghavan and produced by Sarkunam. After working in that film, he felt he needed to learn more and so, he joined the post-modernistic theatre troupe Manal Magudi and worked there as an assistant director for two years.[10]

Vinothraj made a short film, Subway, at this time on a shoe-string budget.[11] The idea for Pebbles was based on what his sister told him about her treatment by her husband. Her family could not pay a dowry, so her husband threw her out and she had to walk almost 13 kilometres to her mother's house.[12] The film was produced by Learn and Teach Productions. Vinothraj, along with his team, shot the film in around 37 days in the peak hours of sunlight during the noon as he wanted to capture the heat of the landscape.[13]

Filmography

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Key
† Denotes films that have not yet been released
  • All films are in Tamil, unless mentioned.
Year Film Notes
2021 Pebbles
2024 The Adamant Girl

Awards and honours

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Pebbles
Award Category Result Ref
International Film Festival of Rotterdam Tiger Award (Best Film) Won [14]
Academy Awards Best International Feature India's official entry [15]
Film Independent Spirit Awards Best International Feature Nominated [16]
ShorTS International Film Festival Premio SNCCI (Jury Prize) Won [17]
Transilvania International Film Festival Special Jury Award Won [18]
Golden Apricot International Film Festival Golden Apricot Award (Best Film Award) Won [19]
Singapore International Film Festival Best Director Award Won [20]
Dhaka International Film Festival Best Film Award Won [21]
Black Movie Independent International Film Festival People's Jury Award Won [22]
Asian Film Awards Best New Director Nominated [23]
Asia Pacific Screen Awards Achievement in Direction Nominated [24]
International Film Festival of Kerala NETPAC Award, Special Jury Prize, Audience Award Won [25]

References

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  1. ^ Roxborough, Scott (February 7, 2021). "'Pebbles' Wins Top Honor at 2021 Rotterdam Film Festival". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  2. ^ "Oscars: Tamil film 'Koozhangal' will represent India in the international feature film category". Scroll.in. 23 October 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  3. ^ "India's official entry to Oscars, Tamil film Koozhangal, out of the race". The News Minute. 22 December 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  4. ^ "I don't corner my characters, only place them in context: 'Koozhangal' director Vinodhraj". New Indian Express.
  5. ^ a b "P.S. Vinothraj on making of 'Koozhangal', India's official entry to the Oscars". The Week. Retrieved 2024-08-13.
  6. ^ "From Flower Hawker To Film Auteur: PS Vinothraj, India's New Cinematic Sensation". Forbes India. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  7. ^ "From child labourer to Oscar hopeful, the extraordinary life of PS Vinothraj". the Guardian. 2021-11-21. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  8. ^ "Selling DVDs to directing India's Oscar entry, an interview with filmmaker Vinothraj". The News Minute. 2021-10-27. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  9. ^ S, Srivatsan (2021-02-10). "PS Vinothraj on 'Koozhangal' and the growing space for parallel cinema in Tamil". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  10. ^ Hunt, Aaron (2021-02-10). ""Everybody Had to Work Barefoot": P.S. Vinothraj on His Tiger-Award Winning Pebbles | Filmmaker Magazine". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  11. ^ Ramnath, Nandini. "The fire in the belly from which the award-winning Tamil film 'Koozhangal' emerged". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  12. ^ "Filmmaker PS Vinothraj on his Rotterdam winner Pebbles, the politics of his image-making and his humble beginnings". Firstpost. 2021-02-21. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  13. ^ "Poverty Forced Him Into Child Labour, Now His Film Is Winning Awards for Capturing Harsh Realities". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  14. ^ Hudson, David. "Pebbles Tops the Rotterdam 2021 Awards". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  15. ^ "'Pebbles', India's official entry at the 2022 Academy Awards, out of the Oscars race". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  16. ^ "After Oscars, 'Pebbles' nominated for Spirit Awards". Deccan Herald. 2021-12-15. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  17. ^ "Shorts International Film Festival - Premio SNCCI Miglior lungometraggio votato dalla giuria del Sindacato Nazionale Critici Cinematografici Italiani "Koozhangal" di P.S. Vinothraj Motivazione: Per la capacità di fondere senza alcun tipo di forzatura la vivida rappresentazione della realtà e la metafora di una condizione umana allo stremo, in un mondo dominato dall'aridità, tanto naturale quanto mentale. Un film dicotomico che ha la capacità di porsi ad altezza bimbo, inseguendo la lezione del neorealismo e del cinema iraniano, per raccontare una società iniqua dove a pagare il prezzo più alto sono gli ultimi, i poveri, i bambini, e le donne (le uniche che forse sanno ancora come trovare l'acqua). | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  18. ^ Blaney2021-08-02T10:24:00+01:00, Martin. "'The Whaler Boy' wins top prize at 2021 Transilvania film festival". Screen. Retrieved 2022-08-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ "The Golden Apricot Festival wraps its 18th edition with wins for Pebbles, Downstream to Kinshasa and Taming the Garden". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  20. ^ "Singapore International Film Festival - SGIFF". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  21. ^ "'Pebbles' wins Best Film award at 20th Dhaka International Film Festival". Odisha News, Odisha Latest news, Odisha Daily - OrissaPOST. 2022-01-26. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  22. ^ "Black Movie". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  23. ^ "'Disciple', 'Pebbles' get Asian Film Awards nominations in good season for Indian indies". 2021-09-13. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  24. ^ "P S Vinothraj for Pebbles (Koozhangal)". Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  25. ^ "'Pebbles' shines at IFFK". www.yugmarg.com. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
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