Vinod Ganatra, a recipient of The Liv Ullmann Peace Prize, Chicago has been active in the Film and Television Production from 1982. He has edited and directed about 400 Documentaries & News Reels. He has Produced 25 TV Programs for children & youth. He has also made three Children Films for CFSI and these films have won 23 International Awards.
He is now, a recipient of DADA SAHEB PHALKE – LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD conferred by “The Association fo Film & Video Editors”. He has several National & International Awards to his credit.
Widely travelled, he has also served as Jury at 63 National & International Film Festivals world over for last two decades. He served as Hon. Secretary for 4 years, 2 years as a Vice President & for 2 years as President of Indian Documentary Producer’s Association. He is member of Film Advisory Board of CBFC.
His Debut feature film HEDA-HODA (BLIND CAMEL) travelled about 58 International Film Festivals world over and won many Awards. His film HIDE-N-SEEK (Lukka Chhuppi) is listed in Limca Book of World Records as ‘First Children’s Feature Film Fully Shot At The Highest Altitude’ at Ladakh in Himalayas. Hide-N-Seek was also screened at about 21 International Film Festivals.
“Harun-Arun” his film in Gujarati based on Indo-Pak Boarder was world premiered at 26th Chicago Intl. Children’s Film Festival and conferred with prestigious “Liv Ullmann Peace Prize” Further he also won “Best Juvenile Audience Award” at Dhaka Intl. Film Festival in 2010.
Added to this, in Canada, HARUN-ARUN won 3 awards i.e. ‘CIFEJ PRIZE’ by professional Jury & ‘SPECIAL HUMANITY AWARD’ by Children Jury at Rimouski Intl. Film Festival, 2010 & ‘AUDIENCE AWARD‘ at Freeze Frame Festival in March 2011. His next achievement was receipt of ‘BEST COSTUME AWARD’ at Augsburg Intl. Children’s Film Festival in Germany in April, 2011. In October 2011, he further won ‘Golden Butterfly Award’ for HARUN-ARUN as ‘BEST ASIAN FILM’, at the Isfahan International Film Festival, Iran and latest Award is “SPECIAL JURY AWARD” at the 37th Gdynia International Film Festival, in Poland.
Formation of his NGO, Children’s Audio-Visual Educational Foundation, is the output of his working with Children for over 2 decades. CAVEF organizes workshops and screenings of films for children and young adults.