Soman Chainani is a 2008 graduate of the MFA Film Program at Columbia University, and the recipient of the school’s top prize, the FMI Fellowship for Writing and Directing. In addition, Chainani is the recipient of the CINE Golden Eagle Prize for excellence in directing, a coveted award which launched the careers of Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Altman. His short films, DAVY & STU and KALI MA, have played over 150 international film festivals including Toronto, Palm Springs, Mumbai, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Moscow, Sydney, won over 30 jury and audience awards, qualified for the Academy Awards, and secured theatrical and ancillary distribution in over 100 territories.

Before joining the Columbia University film program, Chainani graduated Harvard University in 2001 summa cum laude and top-ranked in his field, with a degree in English & American Literature. He then worked as Mira Nair’s assistant at the acclaimed director’s production company, Mirabai Films.

Soman’s first feature script, LOVE MARRIAGE, was the subject of front-page features in the Bombay Times, Hindustan Times, and Times of India, and won awards from the C.A.P.E. Foundation Competition, NewDraft Competition, and Big Bear Lake competition. Additionally, the script was selected for the FIND Fast Track, IFP Market, Berlinale Talent Campus, London Finance Market, Mannheim Film Market, and Goa IFFI Fair, and shortlisted for Expo 5 and the Sundance Screenwriters and Sundance Directors’ Lab. The project also won the coveted $100,000 Shasha Grant at the first Middle East Film Financing Circle, given by a jury selected from 40 top international film executives, including Harvey Weinstein, Paul Haggis, former BBC head David Thompson, Hyde Park CEO Ashoke Amitraj, and celebrated Asian producer Nansung Shi. The story of an Indian family torn apart by dueling weddings, LOVE MARRIAGE will be produced by Framework Pictures and Forward Films in early 2013.

Recently, Soman was invited to participate in the CBS Directing Initiative as a trainee to director Joshua Marston (MARIA FULL OF GRACE) on episodes of the CBS series SWINGTOWN. He was also nominated for a NewNowNext Award, sponsored by MTV, in the Brink of Fame category for his work as a writer/director.

He is currently writing the musical feature Mumbo Jumbo for Aardman Animation and is the writer/creator of Wedding House, a new dramatic series for Tiger Aspect in the UK. In addition, he is writing the epic young adult fantasy trilogy The School for Good and Evil for HarperCollins. The first book, due out in Spring 2014, will be turned into a film by producer Jane Startz (Ella Enchanted, Tuck Everlasting, The Indian in the Cupboard), with Chainani penning the screenplay.