MUMKBAI: Actress and award winning activist Shabana Azmi has been chosen as the president of the International Jury for the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Awards, to be held on the Gold Coast, Australia on 13 November.

APSA chairman Des Power said, “We are strongly committed to cinematic excellence and the promotion of the regions’ respective cultures through film. Ms Azmi is undoubtedly one of India‘s most influential actresses and there is no better person to head up the APSA Jury than she. Her integrity and commitment to the APSA ideals is considerable.” 

Films from the most culturally diverse region in the world will be acclaimed in two programs to be screened globally on CNN International from October 2007.

Prior to the award ceremony, CNN International will screen the first program, Scene By Scene – Films of Asia Pacific, an hour-long report on the region’s film industry. Following the Awards, a second program, Scene By Scene – Best Films of Asia Pacific, will feature highlights of the Awards including interviews with nominees, winners and the international jury. The programs will be produced by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in association with CNN International. 

Azmi has more than 140 films to her credit. She is also the recipient of the Crystal Award, the International Indian Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award and many more. In fact, she is the only Asian actor to have a retrospective of her films at the New York Film Festival (2002).

In 1992, this noted activist was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund and, in 2006, she was awarded the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award. Azmi is also an active member of the National Integration Council, headed by the Prime Minister of India and was nominated in 1997 as a member of the upper house of the Indian parliament.