Director: Manas Shashidharan Jacob

Manas Shashidharan Jacob is a Mumbai-based filmmaker whose work is driven by a fascination with the complexities of the human experience. Drawn to stories that reveal larger emotional truths through seemingly ordinary lives, he explores themes of identity, ambition, belonging, and self-worth across a range of genres and storytelling forms. A Political Science graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, his artistic perspective has been shaped as much by observation as by formal education, finding inspiration in the contradictions, aspirations, and everyday struggles of the people around him. His short film Seher was part of the team that won the 2018 National Film Awarding the non feature film category. His debut independent feature, The Audition, is an intimate character study of an aspiring actor grappling with rejection, self-worth, and the longing to be seen. While grounded in realism, the film reflects Manas's broader interest in using cinema as a vehicle to examine universal emotional experiences. He is currently developing his second feature film, a musical horror that continues his exploration of human psychology through a distinctly different genre lens.