Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir has earned two Oscar nominations — for her short The Devil Is Busy in the best documentary short category and The Perfect Neighbor in the best documentary feature segment. Gandbhir, a director mentored by Sam Pollard and Spike Lee, was born to Indian parents who emigrated to the US in the 1960s. She met both while studying visual art with a focus on animation at Harvard University. In fact, she even worked with Lee on his 1992 seminal film Malcolm X. She also credits Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1998) as a major influence.
Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton have co-directed The Devil Is Busy (streaming on JioHotstar), which will compete against All the Empty Rooms, Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, Children No More: Were and Are Gone, and Perfectly a Strangeness in the best documentary short segment. The 31-minute film follows Tracii, the head of security at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, over the course of a day as she works to ensure the safety of patients and staff amid tighter abortion restrictions and persistent protests.
A still from Geeta Gandbhir’s The Devil Is Busy.
In the documentary feature film category, Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor is among the nominees, alongside The Alabama Solution, Come See Me in the Good Light, Cutting through Rocks, and Mr. Nobody against Putin. The Netflix documentary chronicles the shooting incident in June 2023 where a white female, Susan Louise Lorincz, fatally shot her Black female neighbour Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida. Gandbhir has also produced the movie along with Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu and Sam Bisbee.
Gandbhir has built a distinguished career in documentary filmmaking over nearly two decades, earning multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards along the way. Some of her acclaimed projects include I Am Evidence (2017), which exposed systemic delays in processing untested rape kits across the US, and Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (2022), which won industry accolades for its historical depth and narrative strength. She has also directed the Emmy-winning short Through Our Eyes: Apart in 2022.
A still from Geeta Gandhbir’s The Perfect Neighbor.
Gandhbir, a second-generation American, still keeps visiting India, since she has her extended family there. She’s also open to directing an Indian film, but that would come with a caveat. “I live in the US and representation is really important to me. I think about this with every film. Am I the right person to tell this story? There are brilliant filmmakers in India who should be telling those stories. But if it’s the right story that I feel I am uniquely set to tell, I would do it,” she told SCREEN in an exclusive interview last month.
Priyanka Chopra as presenter
Actor Priyanka Chopra will take the stage as a presenter at the 98th Academy Awards. The actor will be joined by fellow presenters Will Arnett, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Hathaway, Paul Mescal, and Gwyneth Paltrow, and and executive producer Katy Mullan, according to a statement by The Academy. Previously announced presenters include Adrien Brody, Javier Bardem, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Chase Infiniti, Mikey Madison, Demi Moore, Kumail Nanjiani, Maya Rudolph, and Zoe Saldana.
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This is not the first time Chopra has been part of the Oscars. The actor, along with husband and actor-singer Nick Jonas, had announced the nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021. Hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien, the 98th Oscars will stream live in India this Monday on March 16 at 4:30 am on JioHotstar. It’ll also air simultaneously on the TV channels Star Movies, Star Movies Select, and Colors Infinity.
