User:Rama Rau

Born in Chennai, India, award winning Toronto-based writer-director Rama Rau is an expert at telling strong, female-centered stories with heart. She is a pioneer in hiring all-female film crews and has traveled the world, making a number of award-winning films, including multi-award-winning HONEY BEE, starring Julia Sarah Stone and Martha Plimpton, winning the Best Film Award at the Whistler Film Festival, the Canadian Film Festival, and a LEO Award for Julia.

Bringing this undeniable cinematic vision to directing for one hour television, she has been drawn to strong storytelling, as can be seen in her directing on VIRGIN RIVER for Netflix, legal show DIGGSTOWN, and fan favorite, MURDOCH MYSTERIES for CBC. COVEN, a film on modern day witches world premiered at the prestigious Hot Docs Film Festival to sold out audiences. Rama has a devoted audience for her work and leans on her real life experience in world class documentary making, to bring authenticity to every detail of what’s seen on screen - from one hour TV shows, to feature films, working closely with A list actors and making sure every department is supported. She has been profiled as one of Canada’s Top Ten Women Filmmakers, has won the TIFF Irving Avrich Award, the Hot Docs Don Haig Award, the Stuttgart Best Director Award and the Golden Panda for Best Director and was nominated for Best Director multiple times at the Canadian Screen Awards. Rau is also a writer of original material for TV and Film. Her TV Series PARADISE MOTEL has received Early Development Funding from the Canada Media Fund and is selected for Netflix Canada’s first development program, her new film RUNAWAYS is a CFC-Netflix Development Accelerator project and a Finalist in the TIFF-CBC Screenwriters Award.

Rau’s singular experiences filming across the world, mixing cultural influences sees her bring a unique voice to her work as a writer-director of stories with strong female protagonists going through life-changing experiences. She has been profiled as one of Canada’s Top Ten Women Filmmakers, winning awards like the Whistler EDA Best Film Award, the Hot Docs Don Haig Award, the Stuttgart Best Director Award and the Golden Panda for Best Director. Rau’s work has been covered by The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Playback, The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail.

A PhD in English Drama and Literature from the University of Madras, India, Rau is an alumna of the Women in the Director’s Chair program (WIDC) and of the Judith Weston and Joan Scheckel Director’s Labs in LA and a member of the Alliance of Women Directors (AWD) in LA and the Director’s Guild of Canada. Her work has been featured on Sundance Now, ARTE France, ZDF Germany, Al Jazeera, NRK Norway, YLE Finland, CBC and TVO. Rau also actively gives back to the community – she is a Board Member of Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC) and is instrumental in Diversity and Inclusion policies. She has been invited to be a Mentor at the Creatives of Colour Incubator and is a frequent guest on industry inclusion discussions.