Indian Film ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ Wins Audience Award and Jury Award for Lead Actor Preeti Panigrahi at Sundance Festival
- And Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan's documentary feature “Nocturnes” gets World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft.
Two films from India have won popular awards at the Sundance Film Festival at the Ray Theater in Park City, Utah. Such Talati’s “Girls Will Be Girls” received two awards — the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category and the Special Jury Award for Acting for its lead actor Preeti Panigrahi. The World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft went to Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan’s documentary feature “Nocturnes.”
The maiden production of Bollywood actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, “Girls Will Be Girls” is the coming-of-age story that takes place in the strict boarding school nestled in the Himalayas. It evolves around the rocky relationship between sixteen year-old Mira (Panigrahi) and her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti). When Mira discovers desire and romance in the boarding school, “her sexual, rebellious awakening is disrupted by her mother who never got to come of age herself,” says a synopsis of the film on the festival website.
According to the Sundance jury, they were “completely moved and surprised” by Panigrahi’s “luminous performance,” which “brought to life a character with intelligence and vulnerability.” Lauding the film for “daring to explore young female sexuality and agency with frankness and sweetness,” the jury described Panigrtahi’s performance “delicate, uncompromising, and unforgettable.”
The film received rave reviews at its Jan. 20 premiere at the festival. Variety said that “the complicated character drama makes for a thrilling, intimate debut.” The way the film “presents female teen sexuality — sensitively, sensuously, mischievously — is practically revolutionary in the broader context of Indian cinema.” The Screen Daily called it a Sundance “breakout,” 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.
“Nocturnes” revolves around a scientist and a local Himalayan resident observing and documenting the lives of hawk moths over months. “Two curious observers shine a light on a secret universe, transporting audiences to a rarely-seen place where moths help knit together an important ecosystem,” according to the ec doc’s synopsis. The jury said “the images and sound in this film immediately invoke in the audience a meditative state as they enter the film’s world, at the same time bringing a laser focus to the film.
This is the fourth consecutive time that an Indian documentary has been awarded at the acclaimed festival. “Writing With Fire” won the Audience Award and Special Jury Award: Impact for Change in 2021; while “All That Breathes” won the Grand Jury Prize in 2022; and “Against The Tide” won the Special Jury Award for Vérité Filmmaking last year.
Meanwhile, Indian American Kristina Motwani was presented with the Adobe Mentorship Award for Nonfiction. The San Francisco-based editor, writer, producer and story consultant Kristina Motwani is a 2019 DOCNYC 40 under 40 honoree, was a 2017 BAVC National MediaMaker Fellow and a 2018 SFFilm FilmHouse Resident. Her work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca, SFFilm festival and more, and has been seen on PBS, Netflix and the World Channel. She has been nominated for a regional Emmy award and received awards from the SF Press Club, the Tellys and the Society for Professional Journalism. She is a judge for the news and doc Emmy Awards and is currently teaching editing at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She is also a member of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia, a group of women of color who work in Documentary film.