Sundance Film Festival: Ali Fazal-Richa Chadha's debut production 'Girls Will Be Girls' wins two awards, actor reacts

“Girls Will Be Girls”, the debut production of actor-couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, has won two awards at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Documentary “Nocturnes”, an India-US co-production, also bagged an honour at the festival’s annual awards, held in Park City, Utah. “ _Girls Will Be Girls_ ”, directed by Shuchi Talati, took home the Audience Award for World Cinema Dramatic Competition, while its lead actor Preeti Panigrahi won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting. “Nocturnes”, directed by Anirban Dutta, won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft. The film is a compelling story set in a boarding school in a small Himalayan hill town in northern India. It follows the journey of Mira, a 16-year-old girl whose rebellious awakening is intertwined with her mother’s unfulfilled coming-of-age experiences. Taking to his Instagram and sharing multiple pictures, Fazal penned a long note to express his excitement. He wrote- “Got no soundtrack for this post- just hear the music- WE WON SUNDANCE AND PREETI WON BEST ACTOR ( period) Doesn’t get better. Am just so happy for Shuchi, for our film, for the actors Kesav Kani, Preeti, jitin, Devika, priya, Aakash, the whole lot.. - so many FIRSTS ON THIS FILM.”

The actor added, “Our first production indeed so a big big shout out to the whole production team. yes but so many learnings and some wins. In all this - i learn that inspiration spreads as fast as hate and anger. So here’s some positivity from our end to the world thats in doldrums . Oh and thank you to all the jury members at sundance .. for championing us. And what a way to celebrate REPUBLIC DAY!!” Richa Chadha also shared a video where she described the feeling with her ‘ugly crying face’ on the joyous occasion:

With added inputs from agencies