Just days after writer-director Sandhya Suri’s ‘Santosh’ was named in the BFI London Film Festival’s First Film Competition Sutherland Award, her directorial feature debut set in rural India has now been named as the UK’s official entry for next year’s Oscars in the International Film Category.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is the organisation appointed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to select the UK’s submission for consideration in the category formerly known at the Oscars as the Foreign Language Film Award. Any British feature film that is predominantly non-English language and released theatrically outside of the US between November 2023 and September 2024 is eligible.
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‘Santosh’, which includes Hindi dialogues and has been theatrically released in France, will now go head to head with other international entries, including India’s ‘Laapataa Ladies’. London-based Suri’s film centres around a newly widowed Santosh, portrayed by acclaimed actor Shahana Goswami, who inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a young girl’s murder.
The film also stars Sunita Rajwar, with cinematography by Lennert Hillege and editing by Maxime Pozzi-Garcia. ‘Santosh’ is produced by Mike Goodridge, James Bowsher, Balthazar de Ganay and Alan McAlex, executive producers are Ama Ampadu, Eva Yates, Diarmid Scrimshaw, Lucia Haslauer and Martin Gerhard. The film is produced by Good Chaos, with co-producers Razor Film and Haut et Court, and is financed by BFI and BBC Film.
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Suri taps into her background as a documentary filmmaker for her debut feature, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and it set to be screened at the London Film Festival on October 13 and 18.
“For me, it's about a certain forensic level of observation and detail. I think that's where a film lives, in its details, and I hope that people feel that,” said Suri with reference to the gritty cop thriller.
*Info: BFI London Film Festival
