Film Southasia Festival of Documentaries wrapped up on Sunday, awarding the Ram Bahadur Trophy for the Best film to ‘6-A Akash Ganga’, directed by Nirmal Chander Dhandriyal.

The three-member jury spoke highly of the film, saying it is a tribute to the enigmatic Hindustani classical musician Annapurna Devi. The film combines archival footage, interviews, and good performances.

The Jury Award was split between Subina Shrestha's ‘Devi’ and Prateek Shekhar's ‘Chardi Kala—An Ode to Resilience’.

This year, Film Southasia also honoured filmmaker Anand Patwardhan with the ‘Documentary Stalwart Award’, honouring his decades of productions focused “on social justice, humanity and memory”.

The Best Student Film Award went to ‘Hello Guyzz!’ by Samiksha Mathur. The Tareque Masud Best Debut Film Award was awarded to ‘Siege in the Air’ by Muntaha Amin. The Best Film on Depiction of the Climate Crisis, sponsored by ICIMOD, went to ‘A Flaming Forest’ by Salman Javeed, Vivek Singh Sangwan and Satya Ambasta.

This year’s biennial Southasian film festival featured forty-seven films from 9 countries screened over 4 days. With the theme ‘Documentary in Anthropocene’, the festival focused on the alarming ecological deterioration of the planet, including in Southasia, while presenting many documentaries that touched on South Asian lives across boundaries.

The festival also hosted workshops and discussions, starting with a directing workshop with chief guest Kabir Khan. ‘Kathaharu’ and the ‘WOW Festival’ conducted masterclasses with Jane Mote, The Whickers, UK, and film editor Shweta Venkat, in collaboration with Film Southasia. Other discussions were held on the themes ‘Understanding the Anthropocene’, ‘The Evolution of the Nepali Documentary’ and ‘The Sudden Runaway Success of Nepali Cinema’.

In their closing remarks, the jury, consisting of Farjad Nabi (Lahore), Anitha Pottumkulam (Chennai), and Kiran Krishna Shrestha (Kathmandu), highlighted the importance and urgency of the theme related to human-induced deterioration of the environment, “This year’s theme—Anthropocene—is not just timely but essential. It is a stark reminder that what we share cannot be restrained by borders.”