Roma Sur

Roma Sur

Senior Instructor
  • Film & Television

Email Address:roma.sur@ucdenver.edu

Primary Phone:303-315-7427

Roma Sur is a screenwriter and filmmaker, who found her niche in narrating cross-cultural stories that channel her Asian American immigrant experience of living in the U.S. for 20 years, and her childhood in Cosmopolitan India. She comes from a family of fierce independent women, and they often form the core of her writing. She writes young adult and female driven dramas with levity.

Her most recent project is a 38 minute documentary, titled MAA. Shot over a two-year period in India, Ontario and Colorado, MAA follows an 80-year-old's deferred dream to gaze upon the Niagara Falls, before her last breath. Completed in June 2021, the film is a recent semi-finalist at Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, an Academy, BAFTA and Canadian Screen Awards qualifier. Follow the project @Maadocumentary

Sur also wrote the Pilot Episode of the web series, Womanhood, "Embarrassing Moments only a Woman can Experience." It was shot in June 2021. Sur is currently in pre-production for her recent feature screenplay, The Rock Within, which has been a second rounder at Sundance feature lab, 2018, an official select, at the Stowe Story Labs, 2018, an invited project at the Stowe Spring Retreat, 2019, a second rounder at India’s leading pitch market, Film Bazaar, 2019, and a quarter finalist at Screencraft’s Funding contest, 2019. It is slated for a summer 2022 production. Sur leads the study abroad program to Mumbai, titled Bollywood Connections.

Areas of Expertise

Screenwriting: fiction/non-fiction
Producing
Media Theory classes

Education, Licensure & Certifications

University of Bangalore, India
Masters in American Literature 

University of Denver 
Masters in Film and Video Production

Awards

MAA, documentary
Semi-finalist, Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2021

CU President’s Diversity Award 2020
An annual award, across four campuses for work that recognizes the values of diversity

Not Pictured, Faculty Mentor for a bilingual short, produced on location in Mumbai

  • Dada Saheb Phalke, Special Mention 2020
  • San Bernando Valley Film Festival, Finalist 2020
  • Colorado Dragon Film Festival 2020
  • Mumbai Shorts Film Festival 2020 
  • Flamingo Mumbai Film Festival 2020
  • Bangalore Shorts Film Festival 2020
  • Global India Film Festival, Best Film 2020
  • Best International Global Short, India 2019 
  • Winner, Outstanding Achievement, L’age D’or International Film Festival 2019
  • Goa Short Film Festival 2019             

Desert Flower, Faculty Mentor for a student-led web-series 

  • Winner, Independent Shorts Awards, Los Angeles 2019
  • Miami Web Fest 2019
  • Global Web Series, Semi-finalist 2020

Three Worlds One Stage, a feature documentary

  • San Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Brazil 2020
  • Official Selection, Colorado Independent Women Film 2019 
  • Official Selection, Breckenridge Film Festival 2019
  • FAD Festival - Film, Art Dance on Screen 2019 
  • Official Selection, Peace Film Festival, Florida 2019
  • Best Feature Documentary, Global India Film Festival 2019
  • Official Selection, Utah Dance Film Festival 2019 
  • Official Selection, Dragon Film Festival 2019
  • Women in Film and Media Colorado Finishing Fund Grant 2019
  • Jaipur International Film Festival 2019
  • Delhi International Film Festival  2019 
  • Screening at European

The Rock Within, a feature screenplay

  • Sundance Feature Lab, Semi-finalist 2018
  • Official Selection, Stowe Story Lab 2018
  • Official Selection, Stowe Spring Retreat 2018
  • Film Bazaar, Second Rounder 2019
  • Screencraft Funding, Qaurter-finalist 2019

Seven Days Straight, Faculty Mentor for a student-led web series 2016
Best Editing and Best Writing, LA Web fest

The Golden Hour, a feature documentary

  • Best Documentary, Indian Film Festival of Houston 2013
  • National Screening, NDTV India 2014
  • Official Selection, Mumbai International Film Festival, Mumbai India 2014
  • Official Selection, Golden Door International Film Festival of Jersey City 2013
  • Denver Premiere, SIE FILM Center 2013
  • Featured in THE HINDU, South India’s Leading Daily 2013
  • Featured in Good Housekeeping Magazine, India 2013

Storytelling Today, a short documentary

  • Inducted in the professional catalogue of Denver Public Library  2004
  • Boulder Community Media Award for in the category of Documentary – Issue 2003

The Harold Mendelsohn Graduate Student Award 

  • Department of Mass Communications and Journalism Studies, DU 2003
  • The Graduate Teaching Assistant award  2002– 2003

Copywriter for BPL Connect Pagers

  • Silver Award, Best Copy in Print Ads, 1999

College of Arts & Media

CU Denver

Arts Building

1150 10th Street

Suite 177

Denver, CO 80204


303-315-7400

CMS Login