Anuparna Roy, who made history at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win Best Director in the Orizzonti section, used her award-receiving speech as a powerful solidarity statement to the Palestinian children enduring the ongoing genocidal war by Israeli occupation.
“Every child deserves peace, freedom, liberation, and Palestinians are no exception. It’s a responsibility at the moment to stand by Palestine.”
“I might upset my country, but it doesn’t matter to me anymore,” she said in apparent reference to the much-criticised stand of India’s BJP-led Union government’s pro-Israeli position nowadays.
Roy’s debut feature, Songs of Forgotten Trees, was the only Indian film in the category this year.
Set in Mumbai’s restless chaos, the film follows two migrant women whose lives unexpectedly intersect, revealing fragile bonds of empathy and survival. It stars Naaz Shaikh, Sumi Baghel, Bhushan Shimpi, Ravi Maan, and Lovely Singh. Roy, who began her career assisting on short films including an NFDC project, made her directorial debut with the short Run to the River, which traveled widely at international festivals and won awards.
Songs of Forgotten Trees, her deeply personal first feature, was largely self-funded.
Calling the win “surreal,” Roy thanked the jury, her cast and producers, and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who played a pivotal role in getting the film to Venice.
She also dedicated the award to “every woman who’s ever been silenced, overlooked, or underestimated,” hoping her recognition would inspire “more voices, more stories, and more power for women in cinema and beyond—from India to the world.”
