Mollywood

Mollywood, or Malayalam cinema, is the name given to the Indian film industry that produces movies in that language. It has its headquarters in Kerala, India. Malayalam movies are renowned for their cinematography and story-driven scripts. Elippathayam won the Sutherland Trophy at the 1982 London Film Festival and the British Film Institute's award for Most Original Imaginative Film of 1982. India officially submitted three Malayalam films for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar category: Lijo Jose Pellissery's Jallikkattu (2019), Adaminte Makan Abu (2011), and Guru (1997) by Rajiv Anchal.

Chemmeen (1965), which won a Certificate of Merit at the Chicago International Film Festival and a gold medal at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Cinematography, is another movie that earned widespread recognition. Italy's Bergamo Film Meeting awarded Swaham (1994) the Bronze Rosa Camuna. My Dear Kuttichathan, the first 3D movie filmed in India, was created in the Malayalam language in 1984. Thacholi Ambu was the first Malayalam CinemaScope movie made (1978).

Thiruvananthapuram served as the centre of the Malayalam cinema business in the early 1920s, but it wasn't until the late 1940s that the industry really began to take off and prosper. Later, when Chennai (formerly Madras) was the centre of the South Indian film industry, the business moved there. The Malayalam film industry returned to Kerala in the late 1980s and established itself there, with Kochi housing the majority of the locations, studios, production, and post-production facilities. Kochi is referred to as the centre of the film industry by a number of media outlets. At the 2018 National Picture Prizes in India, Malayalam cinema won 14 awards for best actor, 6 for best actress, 12 for best film, and 13 for best director.