Anthony Maras's major work 'Hotel Mumbai', mostly shot at Adelaide Studios, builds on his short film successes
Anthony Maras's 2019 film Hotel Mumbai was extensively shot at the Adelaide Studios.
Hotel Mumbai, directed and co written by Adelaide’s Anthony Maras, one of the biggest film productions to come out of South Australia, was released in 2019 with a world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival.
Hotel Mumbai delves into the story of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks..The thriller focuses on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, one of four locations targeted in the attacks, where six explosions were reported. Maras he did copious research to produce the film.
Hotel Mumbai was mostly shot at Adelaide Studios and was partly funded by the Adelaide Film Festival where it had another premiere. English actor Dev Patel, known best for starring in Slumdog Millionaire and Lion —was a lead in Hotel Mumbai along with Adelaide's Tilda Cobham-Hervey.
Anthony Maras’s earlier short film The Palace was a multi-award winner. It won best short film at other film festivals and awards ceremonies including the 2012 Beverly Hills Film Festival (also best director), 2011 Sydney Film Festival 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival (Best Australian short film), 2012 Flickerfest International Festival of Short Films (best Australian short film), 2011 IF Awards (rising talent), 2012 Shorts Film Festival, 2012 Australian Film Festival) and the 2011 Adelaide Film Festival (audience award). It also won best screenplay in a short film at the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) awards.
This marked Maras’s third AACTA (formerly AFI) Award, having won best short fiction film for his Spike up. He was nominated for the same award for his first film Azadi. Maras also worked as an associate producer on Last ride (2009), the debut feature of Palme d'Or winning director Glendyn Ivin and starring Hugo Weaving.
Maras's original family surname was Mamatas. He was a cousin to American author Nick Mamatas and popular Greek folk singer Eleftheria Arvanitaki.
