Arpita Kumar

Arpita Kumar grew up in India and works as a filmmaker in Los Angeles, CA. Her award-winning films have screened internationally at numerous film festivals and venues including Mill Valley, PBS Online Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Sarasota, Atlanta, Cleveland, Bend Film, Athens, DC Shorts, Reykjavik, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, amongst others.

Arpita is one of the three winning writers to work on the New Normal anthology series with Project Greenlight Digital Studios, Color Creative TV, Issa Rae, and Adaptive Studios.

As a part of the Film Independent’s Project Involve Fellowship, Arpita wrote and directed a short narrative film, My Dear Americans, which won the PBS People’s Choice Award for 2014. Additionally, Arpita was selected for the Transatlantic Talent Lab at the Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) in 2014 and nominated for the Golden Egg Award in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Arpita’s achievements and films have been covered by innumerable prestigious media outlets including NPR, The Huffington Post, PBS, Black Public Media, IndieWire, USA Today, BuzzFeed, India Today, Indian Express, The Hindu, B4U, DearCinema, Quartz, and DNA.

Arpita worked under Kirby Dick for his Oscar nominated documentary, The Invisible War, about rape in the U.S. military. She has a MFA in Film/Video from California Institute of the Arts, a MA in Comparative Literature from The University of Iowa, and a BA in Film/Literature from Hampshire College.

Odd Talkies is Arpita Kumar’s production company. Together with Giulia Caruso and Gorav Kalyan of Nonetheless Productions, she is in development for her debut feature film, Gori.