The Adoor Gopalakrishnan Film Archive and Research Center honors the legacy of internationally celebrated filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Committed to preserving and promoting the films of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, it also encourages and supports students to create new films in the spirit of the filmmaker.
The Sunanda Gopalakrishnan Digital Film Archive houses the Adoor Gopalakrishnan films in digital format (BRD), established in June 2015, in honor of the artist’s beloved wife who passed away in September that year.
Adoor’s films have been celebrated with retrospectives and tributes in both Europe and America at festivals and at non-commercial outlets. He is recognized by cineastes as a filmmaker with a unique style and the force and compassion to go with it. No other Indian filmmaker has been so consistently assured and so determined, whatever the circumstances, to hold to his cinematic and moral principles.
His films come from deep inside his own culture but, unlike those films which desperately seek to reach audiences by denying their own sources and becoming ‘International’, they speak eloquently to other cultures as well.
Archive & Research Center
Location: Golda Meir Library W312 | 2311 E. Hartford Ave.
Hours: Visit UWM Libraries for hours
To preserve quality, the original 35mm prints as well as digital formats are archived in the UWM Libraries. Copies are available for onsite viewing, community engagement and for instructional and research purposes. To bring the films to audiences in their original format, the UWM Union Theater has been converted to include an archival 35mm projector system. Email askarch@uwm.edu for all requests.
Fellowship & Support
Support of this work was established with a gift in honor of Adoor Gopalakrishnan and in memory of the artist’s beloved mother, Mrs. Gouri Kunajmma. Donations to the Adoor Gopalakrishnan Film Archive and Research Center Fund support academic research and curricular activities of the Center.
The Center will encourage and provide financial support to students in the Department of Film, Video, Animation and New Genres to study Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s cinema or other Indian films like his, and to create new films in the filmmaker’s spirit: innovative, bold, uncompromising expressions that are engaged in critical conversations with the world.
As is evident from Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s films, he remains indisputably Indian. For the last 32 years or more of his unfailing career, he is seen to have grown from strength to strength, always at his creative best. In the Indian context today, he is to my mind the most original and imaginative filmmaker, humanist to the core and realist by conviction. Hidden behind the façade of simplicity, his films are replete with layers of perception. There is no way but to be overwhelmed by feelings of fulfillment.
Filmography
Swayamvaram (One’s Own Choice)
123 Min. | B&W | 1972
National Awards: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Photography, Best Actress
Kerala State Awards: Best Film, Best Photography, Best Art Direction, Best Music
Certificate of Merit: International film review, Colombo.
Festivals: Moscow, Nantes, Colombo, Pesaro, Fribourg, La Rochelle, London, Paris, New York, Melbourne etc.
Kodiyettam (The Ascent)
128 Min. | B&W | 1977
National Awards: Best Regional Film, Best Actor
Kerala State Awards: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Script, Best Art Direction, Best Actor.
Festivals: Berlin, La Rochelle, Adelaide, Tunis, Valladolid, Munich, Pesaro, Fribourg, New York etc.
Elippathayam (Rat-Trap)
123 Min. | B&W | 1972
National Awards: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Photography, Best Actress
Kerala State Awards: Best Film, Best Photography, Best Art Direction, Best Music
Certificate of Merit: International film review, Colombo.
Festivals: Moscow, Nantes, Colombo, Pesaro, Fribourg, La Rochelle, London, Paris, New York, Melbourne etc.
Mukhamukham (Face to Face)
107 Min. | Color | 1984
FIPRESCI Prize: New Delhi ’84
National Awards: Best Direction, Best Screen-play, Best Audiography
Kerala State Awards: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Photography, Best Audiography, Best Editing
Festivals: London, Locarno, Tyneside, Hong Kong, Brussels, Antwerp, Figuera da Foz, Nantes, New York, Fribourg, Denver, Durban, La Rochelle, Montpelliere etc.
Anantaram (Monologue)
125 Min. | Color | 1987
FIPRESCI Prize: Karlovy Vary ’88
National Awards: Best Direction, Best Screen-play, Best Audiography
Kerala State Awards: Best Direction
Festivals: Venice, London, Karlovy Vary, La Rochelle, Nantes, Amiens, New York, Riga, Hawaii, San Francisco, Fribourg, Pesaro, Durban etc.
Mathilukal (The Walls)
117 Min. | Color | 1990
FIPRESCI Prize & UNICEF Film Prize: Venice;
OCIC Prize: Amiens ’90
National Awards: Best Direction, Best Audiography, Best Regional Film
Festivals: Venice, Toronto, London, Munich, Nantes, Hawaii, Washington, Rotterdam, Istanbul, Haifa, Fribourg, Milan, Amiens, Los Angeles, Vienna, Tehran, Pesaro, New York, Durban etc.
Vidheyan (The Servile)
112 Min. | Color | 1993
FIPRESCI Prize, special mention: Singapore ’94
INTER FILM Jury Prize: Mannheim ’94
NETPAC Prize: Rotterdam ’95
National Awards: Best Actor, Best Regional Film
Kerala State Awards: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Actor, Best Story
Critics’ Prize: Best Film in the Indian Panorama, IFFI. Calcutta ’94
Festivals: New York, Toronto, Fukuoka, London, Hawaii, Nantes, Rotterdam, Fribourg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chicago, Sau Paulo, Mannheim, Brussels, Munich, Durban, Gotenberg, San Sebastian, San Francisco, Brisbane, Tehran, Pesaro, Denver etc.
Kathapurushan (The Man of the Story)
107 Min. | Color | 1995
FIPRESCI Prize: Bombay ’97
National Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Supporting Actress
Kerala State Awards: Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor
Festivals: Toronto, London, Pusan, San Francisco, Hawaii, Nantes, New York, Denver, Singapore, Pesaro, Munich, Karlovy Vary, Fribourg, Vancouver, Figuera da Foz, Innsbruck, Haifa, Los Angeles, New Port Beach, Asahikawa, Akita, Alexandria, Paris, Bradford, Birmingham, Bombay, Dhaka, Rotterdam, Madrid, Grenoble, Leon, Aix En Provence, Gucl de Loupe, Cinematheque Paris (Retro)
Nizhalkkuthu (Shadow Kill)
92 Min. | Color | 2002
FIPRESCI Prize: Mumbai International Film Festival ’03
National Awards: Best Regional Film
Festivals: Venice, Rotterdam, Goteborg, Vienna, Paris, Manosque, Nantes, Fribourg, Ljubljana, Munich, London, New York, Washington DC, Toronto, Shanghai, Fukuoka, Jerusalem and New Delhi among others
Naalu Pennungal (Four Women)
105 Min. | Color | 2007
National Awards: Best Director, National Film Awards, India
Festivals: Toronto, New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Palm Sprints, Vancouver, Trinidad, London, Warsaw, Madrid, Barcelona, Manosque, Rotterdam, Munich, Hamburg, Goteborg, Ljubljana, Brussels, Vienna, Jerusalem, Dubai, Cairo, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Dhaka and Goa among others
Oru Pennum Randaanum (A Climate for Crime)
115 Min. | Color | 2008
Kerala State awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Supporting Female Actor
National Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Supporting Actress
Festivals: Venice, Rotterdam, Goteborg, Vienna, Paris, Manosque, Nantes, Fribourg, Ljublijana, Munich, London, New York, Washington D.C,Toronto, Shanghai, Fukuoka, Jerusalem