Who is Geeta Gandbhir, the filmmaker who has made history at Oscars 2026 with two nominations in one year?

Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir on Thursday 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.

The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton have co-directed “The Devil Is Busy”, 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.

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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.

Who is Geeta Gandbhir?

Gandbhir has also produced the movie along with Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu and Sam Bisbee. Gandbhir, a director mentored by Sam Pollard and Spike Lee, was born to Indian parents who emigrated to the US in the 1960s.

She 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 United States, 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.

The 98th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

The filmmaker on making history

Gandbhir said in a statement, “To get media attention around the murder, because it was not really being covered. It was only covered by very local news at best. Without media attention, law enforcement may not be as quick to act. (Lorincz) hadn’t been arrested because of Stand Your Ground laws in Florida, and that ongoing investigation. We were able to get the family on the news there (and) amp up the noise around it.” This was in context of the subject of her documentary.

With added inputs from agencies