Anuparna Roy Wins Best Director at Venice for Songs of Forgotten Trees

A soft, slow earthquake Anurag Kashyap backed Anuparna Roy directed film Songs of Forgotten Trees has broken the record as the first Indian film to win Best Director in the Orizzonti section, Venice’s premier platform for emerging and experimental voices.

Anuparna Roy, a first-time filmmaker from Purulia, West Bengal, made history at the 82nd Venice Film Festival with her debut feature that is a haunting meditation on displacement, womanhood, and silent solidarity, premiered to a packed house and walked away with critical acclaim and a piece of history.

The film, which traces the emotional bond between two migrant women: Thooya, an aspiring actress working as a sex worker, and Swetha, a call-center employee from the South. It unfolds with poetic restraint. Dialogue is spare. Emotions echo in silence. Trees are not just metaphors; they’re memory, labor, and lineage. This is cinema as quiet resistance. There are no saviors. No spectacle. Only presence.

Speaking after the win, Roy, clad in a simple white handloom saree, said, “This film is for the women who are not heard — but who endure, who feel, who dream anyway.”

Previously, the revered director Anurag Kashyap described Anuparna's work as, “I have always believed in backing new talent, especially those who want to say something different, challenge the set norms by their ideas and beliefs,” Kashyap said in a statement. “Ranjan and I have been associated with multiple such films over the years, and it’s amazing to see such raw talent continuously coming up. Anuparna is definitely one such voice and we feel proud and happy to back her first feature.”

The Path Less Taken

Roy’s journey to the red carpet is as remarkable as the film itself. Once an IT professional in Bangalore, she quit her job to pursue cinema full-time, scraping together funds and collaborators while living in semi-isolation between Mumbai and her native Purulia. She wrote the screenplay over five years and often in solitude.

The two lead actors who are theatre-trained and largely unknown to mainstream Bollywood give performances so subtle, they feel like secrets being told only to the audience. Shot on a modest budget with a skeleton crew, the film eschews gloss for grain, spectacle for shadow.

Her win signals something seismic: not just a personal milestone, but a cultural one. Indian women filmmakers have long been under-recognised globally, even as they continue to make bold, nuanced work. With this victory she "hope (s) this moment tells young girls from small towns that their silence has power." Her victory was met with a standing ovation. But more importantly, it was met with resonance.

The film has been picked up by Celluloid Dreams for international distribution, and is reportedly being eyed by several U.S. and European festivals. A limited India release is being discussed, with streaming platforms already expressing interest.

Roy remains cautious about what comes next.