Anuparna Roy wins Best Director for Songs of Forgotten Trees at Venice Film Festival. Check cast and plot

Anuparna Roy has etched her name in history by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win Best Director in the Orizzonti Competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. Her feature debut, Songs of Forgotten Trees, presented by Anurag Kashyap, was the only Indian film to be showcased in the Orizzonti section this year. At the festival’s closing ceremony, the award was announced by French filmmaker Julia Ducournau, with Roy—draped in a white saree—calling the honour “surreal” as she thanked the jury, her cast, producers, and Kashyap.

About the film
Set in the restless sprawl of Mumbai, Songs of Forgotten Trees follows the lives of two migrant women who cross paths in unexpected ways. Thooya, an aspiring actress surviving on uneasy compromises, sublets her sugar daddy’s sleek apartment to Swetha, a corporate professional new to the city. As their lives begin to overlap, a fragile bond of empathy grows between them, quietly revealing stories of survival, womanhood, and connection in a city that never rests. The film stars Naaz Shaikh, Sumi Baghel, Bhushan Shimpi, Ravi Maan, and Lovely Singh.


The filmmaker’s journey
Anuparna Roy hails from Narayanpur, a small village in Purulia, West Bengal. A graduate in British English Literature from Burdwan University, she started her career in cinema as an assistant director on short films, including one with NFDC India. Her directorial debut short, Run to the River, travelled widely across festivals such as the Cheboksary International Film Festival, Stuttgart Indian Film Festival, Rainbow International Film Festival, and Bogura International Film Festival in Bangladesh. It won Best Short Film at the Sthree Film Festival in Chennai and was even screened in Mumbai by acclaimed documentarian Anand Patwardhan.


Beyond film, Roy is also a writer. In 2024, she completed Songs of Forgotten Trees, a deeply personal project that she self-funded while juggling three corporate jobs in Mumbai. Now based in the city, Roy continues to develop new scripts, exploring themes of female agency, marginalised narratives, and Third World cinema.