British Academy picks Sandhya Suri’s “Santosh” as UK’s 2024 Oscar submission

The British Academy has chosen Sandhya Suri’s crime thriller Santosh as the UK’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars. The Hindi-language film, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes earlier this year, follows in the footsteps of Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, which secured the UK’s first-ever win in the category earlier this year.

Directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, best known for her documentaries I for India (2005) and Around India with a Movie Camera (2018), Santosh is her directorial feature debut. Set in rural northern India, the film tells the story of a recently widowed woman named Santosh, who takes over her late husband’s job as a police constable. When a young girl from a marginalized caste is murdered, Santosh becomes entangled in the investigation, guided by a bold feminist inspector. The film stars Shahana Goswami in the lead role, supported by Sunita Rajwar.

Produced by James Bowsher, Balthazar de Ganay, Mike Goodridge, and Alan McAlex, Santosh features a score by Luisa Gerstein, cinematography by Lennert Hillege, and editing by Maxime Pozzi-Garcia. Executive producers include Ama Ampadu, Martin Gerhard, Lucia Haslauer, Diarmid Scrimshaw, and Eva Yates, with co-financing from Good Chaos, Razor Film Produktion, Haut et Court, BBC Film, and the BFI.

Variety described Santosh as “whip smart” and praised its exploration of power dynamics, saying the film was dedicated to capturing “the ugly allure of power through the perspective of those who wield it.”

The film is set to be released in the US by Metrograph Pictures. Before The Zone of Interest, the UK had a modest track record in the Oscars’ international feature category, receiving only two nominations—for Welsh-language films Hedd Wyn (1993) and Solomon & Gaenor (1999)—from a total of 20 submissions.

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