She has won Best South Asian Director Award for the film Santosh.

Sandhya Suri is a British-Indian filmmaker born and raised in the North-East of England. She studied pure mathematics and German before going on to study documentary film-making at England’s National Film and Television School. Her first feature documentary I for India premiered in World Competition at Sundance Film Festival before releasing theatrically in both the UK and the US. It is an unparalleled depiction of the migrant experience constructed from Super 8 film letters sent between India and England over 40 years. Her interest in archive continued when she was asked to explore the the British Film Institute’s India collection dating back to 1899, resulting in the pure archive feature documentary ‘Around India with a Movie Camera’.

In 2015 she was accepted onto both the prestigious Sundance Writers’ and Directors’ labs with her fiction debut script SANTOSH, a gritty neo-noir which tackles patricarchy and inequality in rural India. While developing this film she made her first fiction short The Field, also shot in India, which was nominated for a BAFTA and showcased her talent for capturing personal yet universal stories in a deeply visual and sensuous way. In 2024 SANTOSH was completed and premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. The film was also Bafta nominated and shortlisted for the Oscars Best international feature. It is also certified 100 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.