South Asian creatives and nominees converged in London during BAFTA weekend to mark achievements including Geeta Gandbhir’s dual Oscar nods and the growing visibility of regional films
The awards season brought together a focused group of South Asian artists and executives in London, creating a dedicated space to recognize recent achievements and to discuss industry momentum. Hosted at the BAFTA headquarters, the evening combined celebration with conversation: it highlighted the dual Academy Award nominations for filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir — for the feature documentary The Perfect Neighbor and the short The Devil Is Busy — while also drawing attention to British shorts and regional Indian cinema now reaching international audiences. Organizers described the gathering as both a networking hub and a platform to amplify South Asian screen voices within a broader awards-week ecosystem.
While the tone of the night was celebratory, speakers touched on the political climate that shapes creative work and distribution. Gandbhir used her platform to emphasize solidarity across communities, referencing the importance of allies in opening doors to opportunity. Her remarks underscored a broader message: representation and access are intertwined with civic and cultural currents, and support networks matter when small films and marginalized storytellers seek visibility at institutions like BAFTA and the Academy.
The reception was co-hosted by Society O, a UK cultural platform founded to elevate Asian perspectives across stage and screen, together with Product of Culture, a U.S.-based strategy and distribution company. Society O’s founders, filmmakers Sukki Menon and Parvinder Shergill, framed the event as a gathering to connect nominees, creators and decision-makers; Product of Culture’s leadership, Archana Misra Jain and Monika Sharma Abbas, positioned the evening as part of a continuing effort to create industry visibility for South Asian talent. The partnership reflected a combined approach: domestic UK curation complemented by international industry relationships.
Organizers articulated two clear aims: to celebrate creative achievements and to strengthen professional networks that translate into future projects, distribution deals, and hiring opportunities. The hosts pointed to recent festival and awards recognition as evidence of an expanding appetite for films that center South Asian experiences, from documentaries distributed internationally to British short films and regional Indian pictures that are now finding global audiences. For many guests, the night was an opportunity to forge connections that could change the arc of careers.
Speakers at the event represented a cross-section of film and television. Gandbhir reflected on how communal support helped shape her pathway, while other nominees spoke about what recognition means for specific kinds of projects. Director Luís Hindman, whose British Short Film nominee Magid/Zafar was acknowledged, described the nomination as a humbling validation for a story rooted in a particular British Asian experience. Hindman emphasized the importance of being invited into mainstream spaces and using that visibility to challenge structural barriers.
Rahul Sharda, assistant director on the BAFTA-nominated children’s film Boong, highlighted the international interest in regional Indian storytelling and the way local perspectives are translating to global recognition. The evening also reunited the principal cast of the seminal BBC sketch show Goodness Gracious Me, whose reunion underscored the long arc of British Asian representation on television. That sequence of guests bridged generations of creators, from trailblazers who shifted mainstream comedy to emerging filmmakers reshaping documentary and regional narrative cinema.
Beyond celebrating nominations, the event sought to translate visibility into concrete momentum. Product of Culture has a history of programming industry-facing events, and Society O aims to continue curating spaces where South Asian practitioners can meet gatekeepers and collaborators. Attendees included actors, directors and producers — and names across film and television — all indicating a willingness to build lasting professional ties. The collective message was pragmatic: recognition at awards is meaningful, but the long-term work is converting acclaim into sustainable careers and broader creative ecosystems.
The evening reflected how awards-season gatherings can do more than celebrate; they can create structural pathways when intentionally designed to lift underrepresented creatives. With recent nominations and an energized network of allies and organizers, the South Asian screen community used the BAFTA weekend to stake a claim for continued growth and influence on the global stage.