Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Mouttathu Gopalakrishnan Unnithan (born 3 July 1941), known professionally as Adoor Gopalakrishnan, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who works in Malayalam cinema. With the release of his first feature film Swayamvaram (1972), Gopalakrishnan pioneered the "new wave" in Malayalam cinema during the 1970s. In a career spanning over five decades, Gopalakrishnan has made 12 feature films. His films often depict the society and culture of Kerala. Nearly all of his films premiered at Venice, Cannes and Toronto film festivals. Along with Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, Gopalakrishnan is one of the most recognized Indian film directors in the world cinema.

For his films, Gopalakrishnan has won 16 National Film Awards, next only to Ray and Sen. He also won 17 Kerala State Film Awards. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1984 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2006. He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2004 for his valuable contributions to Indian cinema. In 2016, he was awarded the J. C. Daniel Award, Kerala government's highest honour for contributions to Malayalam cinema. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have established an archive and research center, the Adoor Gopalakrishnan Film Archive and Research Center, at their Peck School of Arts where research students will have access to 35 mm prints of the 11 feature films and several documentaries made by Gopalakrishnan.