Akshaya Sawant
Akshaya Sawant is an award winning filmmaker who most recently was invited to Dubai by the U. S. Consulate to exhibit her cross-border short film 'When Jay met Ammar'; The film has released in 190 countries on the popular OTT platform Zee5.
As a Director and Creative Producer, she has extensively worked in India and United States across branded content, political ads, episodic series, documentaries and narrative films. Akshaya has worked with prominent brands such as Spotify, Netflix, Amazon, Swiggy and CRED collaborating with superstars of Indian film industry, esteemed cricketers and popular influencers across multiple campaigns. Her films have featured on Disney Hotstar, Zee5, Roku TV and KVMD, the national broadcasting channel for Southern California.
Her first feature documentary 'Talking To The Wind' has received 2 grants from The Virgin Unite Social Impact Film Fund (2017 and 2018), won 8 prestigious awards and has screened at 17 International film festivals in 7 countries.
She has a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and completed her Master's in Film and Media Art from Emerson College (Boston) earning the Dean's Fellowship. Owing to her arts background, she has also created marketing assets for 'DocWorld', a series nominated for the News and Documentary Emmy Award in 2017, and the critically acclaimed film 'Ship of Theseus'. In July 2020, she was invited by U. S. Presidential Scholars as the Keynote Speaker to discuss 'Narration - as Art and Responsibility' at the Morningside Scholars forum in China.
Her films explore the intricacy of living in a complex society jaded by gender, culture and traditions. Her background in painting, photography and dance helps her navigate each story through an intentional and unique perspective with some added sprinkles of magical realism.
Akshaya has been granted the O1B visa which is awarded by the U. S. government to select Individuals with extraordinary achievements in art. When not working, she spends her time hanging with her nephew, reading fiction and chasing sunsets.