Tribeny Rai’s ‘Shape of Momo’ Wins Grand Jury Prize at IFFLA

Tribeny Rai’s debut feature “Shape of Momo” claimed the Grand Jury Prize for best feature at the 24th Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.

“We are honored to award the Grand Jury Prize to a debut film that deftly creates a protagonist who inhabits the gray area between righteousness and humility, and delicately charts her journey through the complexities of class and gender in a place steeped in tradition,” the feature jury stated.

The feature jury – composed of cinematographer Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi, filmmaker Juan Pablo González and film curator Caroline Libresco – also awarded honorable mentions to Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s “Lali” and Seemab Gul’s “Ghost School.” Of “Lali,” jurors said: “Moving between genres with ease and exuberance, this film envelopes the audience in a vibrant symphony of music and color.” On “Ghost School,” the jury called it “a beautifully restrained, artistically precise debut feature that works both as a powerful political allegory and as piercing social realism.”

The Grand Jury Prize for best short went to “Room at the Farm,” directed by Jasmine Kaur Roy and Avinash Roy. “A delicate and nuanced allegory of the fragility of human relationships when faced with the impact of modernization. This film represents rural Punjab with a gaze rarely seen, one that centralizes humanity and desire. Over the course of 23 succinct minutes, it allows us to negotiate a devastating reality alongside its characters,” the shorts jury said.

Shorts honorable mentions went to Ananth Subramaniam’s “Bleat!” and Sana Zahra Jafri’s “Permanent Guest.” The shorts jury – film curator Malin Kan and filmmaker Alisha Tejpal – described “Bleat!” as “an absurdist commentary that throws into question our understanding of religion, gender and cultural identity with a profoundly original vision and a strikingly unexpected approach.” Of “Permanent Guest,” jurors noted the film “has crafted immense tension and finds both power and pain in what is left unsaid.”

Voted on by festival attendees, the Audience Choice Award for best feature went to Ben Rekhi and Swetlana’s “Breaking the Code” – which also opened the festival – while Suraj Paudel’s “Rihanna” won the Audience Choice Award for best short.

At IFFLA Industry Days, Amarik Singh Khosa’s project “Blind Tiger” won the Launchpad: Pitch Competition and received a $10,000 development grant. A prestige crime series set in suburban New Jersey, it centers on a highly skilled outsider whose story draws on the overlooked history of a minority community, grounding a classically structured genre drama in a perspective rarely seen on screen. An honorable mention went to Priyanka Krishnan and Raman Nimmala’s “Thottal Poo Malarum” (Flowers Bloom When Touched), a dark comedy about a woman whose carefully constructed path to an elite arranged marriage begins to unravel around questions of virtue and social performance.

The 24th IFFLA – a leading U.S. platform for South Asian cinema – featured 27 films across seven narrative features, two documentary features and 18 shorts, with entries from countries including India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Japan, Malaysia, the U.K. and the U.S. The festival closed with Anusha Rizvi’s social satire “The Great Shamsuddin Family.”