Meet Sandhya Suri: Cannes, Sundance & BAFTA Nominated Filmmaker
You can’t miss this unforgettable night of cinema and conversation! Join us for a special screening of SANTOSH, the narrative feature debut of acclaimed filmmaker Sandhya Suri. Inspired by real-life events and featuring non-actors, this UK submission for the 2024 Oscars earned critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard).
Following the 9:00 PM screening, Sandhya Suri will join us live from the UK for an exclusive Q&A at 7:55 AM her time. With a career that spans from the Sundance-nominated I for India to the BAFTA-nominated short The Field, Suri’s work continues to inspire. Be part of this unique chance to engage with her creative process and the powerful themes behind Santosh!
Friday, January 31, at 9:00pm PST
SANDHYA SURI, Film Director
British-Indian writer and director based in London. Her feature documentary I For India premiered in the World Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, garnering several international awards before being released theatrically to critical acclaim in the UK and the US.
In 2017, the British Film Institute commissioned filmmaker Sandhya Suri to trawl through its national archive and direct a documentary drawn from films shot during colonial rule in India. The result was Around India With A Movie Camera, a fascinating and thought-provoking 72-minute chronicle of how the British viewed its empire, and how its subjects returned the gaze.
Her first fiction short The Field was produced by Thomes Bidegain and Balthazar de Ganay, won Best International Short Film at TIFF in 2018, and was BAFTA- nominated for Best Short Film in 2019. In 2016 she was selected for both the Sundance Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Lab with her first fiction feature Santosh, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
About the Film
Rated: R | Language: Hindi
Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh, a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India.
Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma, a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption.
