Film Heritage Champion Shivendra Dungarpur Gets Berlinale Jury Honour

Indian filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur has been named to the International Jury of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) , joining a seven-member panel chaired by veteran filmmaker Wim Wenders . The appointment, confirmed in Berlinale’s press communications, places an archivist and preservationist in the room that will decide the festival’s top prizes the Golden Bear and several Silver Bears underscoring an institutional recognition of the cultural importance of film restoration alongside contemporary filmmaking.

Dungarpur’s selection follows a string of international recognitions for his preservation work: in 2025 he received the Vittorio Boarini Award for film preservation and his Film Heritage Foundation has recently partnered with state and national bodies to create dedicated archives and restoration projects in India. These honours and partnerships show that Dungarpur has moved from being a national custodian of film history to a figure of genuine global archival influence, an important signal for funders, film festivals and curators.

At this year’s Berlinale Dungarpur will also present a 4K restored version of Arundhati Roy and Pradip Krishen’s 1989 cult film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones in the Berlinale Classics strand; the restoration was carried out by the Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with L’Immagine Ritrovata and Indian partners, using the best surviving elements (16mm original camera negative and sound elements). The restoration screened on the festival programme and discussed by the restoration team intentionally preserved the film’s grain and roughness rather than “over-polishing” it, a curatorial choice that signals the Foundation’s conservative, historically respectful restoration philosophy.

Dungarpur’s filmmaking credentials are notable: his documentary Celluloid Man (2012), a portrait of legendary archivist P.K. Nair , won two National Film Awards and screened at more than 50 international festivals, giving Dungarpur a rare combination of archival authority and festival-facing filmmaker experience. That dual role practitioner and protector strengthens his voice within juries and programming decisions, where questions about restoration ethics , provenance and historical context increasingly shape festival lineups and repertory programming.

Contextually, Dungarpur’s presence on the Berlinale jury matters on three levels. Practically, it gives restored and archival projects higher visibility at one of the world’s major festivals, potentially increasing market interest, distribution opportunities and scholarly attention for restored Indian titles. Institutionally, it can accelerate collaborations between European archives and Indian partners, the Film Heritage Foundation’s recent MoUs and international lab collaborations suggest such partnerships are already accelerating. Culturally, an archivist on the main jury signals a festival agenda that values cinematic heritage as part of its contemporary evaluative criteria, which may shape how juries and programmers consider films that explicitly reference or reuse archival materials.

Finally, this moment is also a PR and funding lever for preservation work in India: restored screenings at Berlinale boost public awareness and can help philanthropic and government stakeholders justify increased investment in archiving, cataloguing and training. For viewers and scholars, the restored In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones offers both a chance to reassess a transitional moment in Indian cinema and a tangible example of what careful cross-border restoration partnerships can achieve.