In a ground-breaking moment, Indian filmmaker Anuparna Roy scripted history at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, clinching the Best Director award in the prestigious Orizzonti Competition for her critically acclaimed film Songs of Forgotten Trees.
Roy’s triumph marks a watershed moment for Indian cinema, as her film was the sole Indian entry competing in Venice’s Orizzonti section. The award was announced by French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, President of the Orizzonti jury, during closing ceremony at the Palazzo del Cinema.
Songs of Forgotten Trees, presented by acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, follows two migrant women navigating loneliness and survival in Mumbai’s unforgiving urban landscape. The film explores themes of displacement, resilience, and fleeting human connections in India’s commercial capital.
Roy, elegant in a white saree, called the moment “surreal” while accepting the honor. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated the award to “women surviving systems designed to erase them,” drawing from her village upbringing where girls were married early instead of educated.
The director revealed her friend Jhuma’s tragic story; married at 13 under a government scheme before vanishing, as inspiration for the film’s unflinching portrayal of marginalized women’s struggles.
Global Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra congratulated Roy on social media, praising the film’s universal resonance and calling it “a victory for authentic storytelling.
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