Harshit Saini gets Second Prize for Best DOP

He won the Award along with Monica Tiwari for the film Humans in the Loop (Ayanya Sahay) at the edition 2025.

Harshit Saini comes from a fine arts background, with a specialization in commercial art and illustration. After completing his studies in Applied Arts from the College of Art, Delhi, he pursued cinematography at the Film and Television Institute of India.

He began his career as a visual artist, working on projects in illustration, poster design, and advertising campaigns for various agencies. His early professional work also included product and model photography for brands.

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Monica Tiwari wins Second Prize for Best DOP

She has won the Award along with Harshit Saini for the film Humans in the Loop (Aranya Sahay) at the edition 2025.

Monica Tiwari is a cinematographer based in Mumbai, India. Finishing her masters in film studies with a specialisation in cinematography from the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India, Monica comes from a background in documentary stills photography with a keen focus on anthropological and environmental relations. Starting her career as a photojournalist for the Hindu newspaper, she is the recipient of grants such as the India Habitat Photosphere, Centre for Science and Environment fellowship, with works shown at Angkor Wat photo festival, Fotogallery Cardiff, India International centre, India Habitat Centre, Alliance Francais India among other places.

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Sandhya Suri wins Best South Asian Director at Imagineindia 2025

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’.

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30 Days of Autumn (Sudipto Roy) India

30 Days of Autumn
Sudipto Roy
India. 2024. 45 min

An ambitious young woman on a month-long government assignment in rural Bengal grapples with loneliness while forming a complex bond with her teenage house help. As his innocent crush and aspirations clash with the impermanence of their relationship, their brief connection leaves her profoundly changed.

An Intimate Indie Gem Exploring Love, Loss, and Longing through a Tagorean Lens.
30 Days of Autumn is a poignant and lyrical indie film written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Sudipto Roy (Kia and Cosmos, Tasher Ghawr)
Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s classic short story Postmaster, 30 Days of Autumn is a quiet yet powerful meditation on human connection, impermanence, and the unspoken emotions that bind us. With a visual and emotional language rooted in the traditions of independent cinema, the film traces the delicate relationship between a transient visitor and a village boy—two lives brought together by chance, and pulled apart by circumstance.

Sudipto Roy is a filmmaker and creative director whose work blends emotional depth with sharp social insight. Based in Mumbai, his stories often navigate the fragile intersections of love, identity, and morality, reimagining classics and crafting originals that resonate with modern audiences.

Roy’s debut feature film, Kia and Cosmos (2019), was released across India, the USA, and GCC countries before streaming on Netflix. The film garnered international acclaim, travelling to festivals in Cannes, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Glasgow, and New York, and was widely appreciated in both national and international cine dailies and magazines.

In 2020, his chamber drama Tasher Ghawr (Hoichoi) became a major OTT success, and critically praised for its bold narrative form and psychological intensity during the pandemic lockdown. His most recent works include 30 Days of Autumn, where he revisits Tagore’s Postmaster through a striking gender-flip lens, furthering his exploration of identity and narrative experimentation. Beyond filmmaking, he has built a strong creative presence in Indian television and OTT, being an active creative force shaping long-form storytelling that bridges mainstream appeal with layered, meaningful narratives.

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Hard Shell (Majid Reza Mostafavi) Iran

Hard Shell
Majid Reza Mostafavi
Iran. 2024. 112 min

Leila who is a young talented tightrope walker, has been banned from performing due to the threat of fanatics, extremists and religious government people to close the circus just because of her artistic movements during her performance in tightrope walking and the way she dresses, and since then she has become a clown in an old circus owned by her father. Samir who is a teenage boy, has fallen in love with Leila and instead of going to school, he wanders away from his parents and roams the circus.
At the same time as the political and economic problems in Iran rises day by day ; Siamak who is Samir’s father and he is an calm and honest hardworking person , after many years of working in different jobs, has just starts working as a foreman in a donkey breeding farm and he has dream of owning a roadside restaurant…

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Saransh Sharma wins Best Music Award at Imagineindia 2025

Sharma wins the Award for the film Humans in the Loop (Aranya Sahay) India.

Saransh Sharma is a composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Pune, India. Working under the moniker Khwabgah, his music blends organic soundscapes with textured electronic production—often drawing from his ambient, post-classical, and downtempo influences.
Born in 1995, Saransh hails from Shahpur, a small town in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. Growing up, his musical world revolved mostly around Hindi film music.
“I remember discovering Linkin Park sometime in my teenage years. It really opened up my mind to a world of sounds. I still love film music, but the idea that music could convey more than love and longing was new to me.”

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Ania Goszczynska gets Second Prize for Best Film Poster at Imagineindia 2025

She has won the Second Prize for the film The Forest in Me (Rebecca E. Marshall) UK.

Ania Goszczyńska was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1976 and studied Design at the Academy of Arts there, gaining an MA in 2003. In her career she focused on editorial illustration, poster design and visual art. Inspired equally by pop, kitsch and mediæval artworks, horror films and fairytales, she creates stark images with bold forms and strong contrasts. Her work was published in magazines, books and as postcards and posters, as well as exhibited in numerous solo and group shows around the world. She currently lives in Hastings, UK.

http://www.goszczynska.com

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Leena Alam, Jury for Best Actress at Imagineindia.

Leena Alam, born in Afghanistan, is an award winning Afghan film, Tv and theater actress and a human rights activist. She started her acting career in 1998 with films such as In a Foreign Land, Loori and a few more made by the Afghan diaspora filmmakers in the US. She made her debut in Afghanistan in Barmak Akram’s 2008 Kabuli Kid, and went on to do Soil and Coral, Darya’s Message, Black Kite, A Letter To The President, and many short films to help young rising film makers in Afghanistan. She is mostly known to have worked in subjects that speaks on Child Marriage, Gender Equality, Women’s Rights and Social Conflicts. Her notable work on these subjects are “Shereen” The struggle of a powerful woman, a taboo-smashing feminist TV drama, The Killing of Farkhunda a re-enactment of the killing of a 27-year-old Afghan woman falsely accused of burning a copy of the Quran, A Letter to the President, Qamar and more.

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Zara Si Dhoop (Aayushi Agarwal) UK

Zara Si Dhoop
Aayushi Agarwal
UK. 2024. 16 min

We delve into the heartwarming and complex relationship between Piyali, a determined 28-year-old professional, and her spirited mother, Neelam, who has been confined to a wheelchair for the past 15 years. Their bond is more than just love; it’s a symphony of fights, games, arguments, laughter, and surprises that has shaped their lives in the bustling city of Lucknow.
Life takes an unexpected turn when Piyali is offered the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to spearhead a major project for her company, but it comes with a catch – she must relocate to a different city. Piyali finds herself torn between her career aspirations and the responsibility she feels towards her mother. As the pressure mounts, a heated argument erupts between them. Harsh words are exchanged, and both mother and daughter are deeply wounded. Piyali regrets her outburst but can’t turn back time. She’s caught in a precarious situation where her relationship with her mother is strained, while her career and the success of her new project hangs in the balance.

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