Sayani Gupta’s directorial debut Aasmani is turning into a festival-circuit case study. After playing nine festivals in the past month and winning in Toronto, Atlanta, Boston and Vancouver, the short film has added five more official selections in the next two weeks — taking its run to 12 festivals in two months.
For an actor stepping into the director’s chair for the first time, that kind of momentum matters. The run is not just about trophies; it is how a short film finds its audience, builds a track record and opens the door to the next project.
What Aasmani has won so far
At the International Film Festival of South Asia in Toronto, Gupta received the South Asian Screen Excellence Award. She attended as Guest of Honour on her birthday and led a masterclass titled “Becoming a Star, Remaining an Actor,” moderated by Anup Singh Batla, director of Qissa and The Song of Scorpions.
The film itself has been collecting honours at almost every stop. It won Best Film at the Atlanta Indian Film Festival, Best Director and Best Child Actor in Boston, and an honourable mention for excellence in short filmmaking at iSAFF Vancouver, where Gupta was also awarded the iSAFF Leadership in Film Award.
The five selections
The new run takes Aasmani across four countries:
- 21st Tasveer Film Festival, Seattle, October 13–18 — the world’s only Oscar-qualifying South Asian film festival.
- 55th Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival, Ukraine, October 24–November 1.
- 22nd LA Femme International Film Festival, Los Angeles, October 22–25.
- 15th Dharamshala International Film Festival, India, October 29–November 1.
- 30th Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Canada, November 5–14.
That builds on recent screenings at DC South Asian, Kerala IDSFFK, Tokyo International Short Film Festival, Chicago South Asian Film Festival and Bangalore International Short Film Festival — India’s only Oscar-qualifying festival.
Why this matters for Hindi cinema fans
A strong festival run is more than a vanity metric for a short film. Oscar-qualifying selections can place a title in front of Academy voters, while audience and jury awards give a first-time director credibility that a streaming or theatrical release alone does not always provide.
Gupta is a familiar face testing a new craft. Fans who watch Aasmani on the festival circuit are effectively seeing the first draft of the kind of filmmaker she wants to become, with more selections already lined up until March 2027.
The film is produced by Sayani Gupta Movies, Nikkhil Advani under Sumitra Gupta Foundation for Arts, and Dia Mirza and Ananya Rane under One India Stories.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com