And Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan’s documentary feature “Nocturnes” gets World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft.
At the Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah’s Sundance Film Festival, two Indian films took home the popular awards. Two accolades were given to Talati’s “Girls Will Be Girls”: the Special Jury Award for Acting for the film’s lead actor Preeti Panigrahi and the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category. “Nocturnes,” a documentary by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft.
“Girls Will Be Girls,” the debut film starring Bollywood actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, is a coming-of-age tale set in a strict boarding school tucked away in the Himalayas. The tumultuous relationship between sixteen-year-old Mira (Panigrahi) and her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti) is the central theme of the story. According to a film synopsis on the festival website, “her sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother who never got to come of age herself” when Mira finds romance and desire in the boarding school.
The Sundance jury said that Panigrahi’s “luminous performance,” which “brought to life a character with intelligence and vulnerability,” “completely moved and surprised” them. The jury praised the movie for its boldness in examining the sexuality and agency of young women, citing Panigrtahi’s performance as “delicate, uncompromising, and unforgettable.”
When the movie debuted at the festival on January 20, it was well-received. “The complex character drama makes for an exciting, intimate debut,” Variety declared. In the larger context of Indian cinema, the way the movie “presents female teen sexuality — sensitively, sensuously, mischievously” is essentially revolutionary. Noting that “the tender feelings and understated direction combine to create a tale of female empowerment that should travel well beyond its world premiere” in the festival, Screen Daily dubbed it a Sundance “breakout.”
A scientist and a local Himalayan resident spend months observing and recording the lives of hawk moths in “Nocturnes.” The ec doc’s synopsis reads, “Two inquisitive observers shine a light on a secret universe, transporting audiences to a rarely-seen place where moths help knit together an important ecosystem.” The jury declared, “This film brings a laser-like focus while simultaneously inducing in the audience a meditative state as they enter the film’s world through its images and sound design.
An Indian documentary has won an award at the renowned festival for the fourth time running. “All That Breathes” won the Grand Jury Prize in 2022, “Writing With Fire” won the Audience Award and Special Jury Award: Impact for Change in 2021, and “Against The Tide” won the Special Jury Award for Vérité Filmmaking in 2022.
In the meantime, the Adobe Mentorship Award for Nonfiction went to Indian American Kristina Motwani. A 2019 DOCNYC 40 under 40 honoree, Kristina Motwani is an editor, writer, producer, and story consultant based in San Francisco. She was also a 2017 BAVC National MediaMaker Fellow and a 2018 SFFilm FilmHouse Resident. Her work has been shown on PBS, Netflix, and the World Channel in addition to screening at festivals like Tribeca, Sundance, and SFFilm. She has won prizes from the SF Press Club, Tellys, and Society for Professional Journalism. She is also a nominee for a regional Emmy. She currently teaches editing at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in addition to serving as a judge for the news and documentary Emmy Awards. She is also a part of the group of women of colour who work in documentary film called the Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
