Pushpa Thing Lama wins Best Performance at Asia Pacific Screen Awards for "Elephants in the Fog"

Nepali actor Pushpa Thing Lama has won the Best Performance award at the 19th Asia Pacific Screen Awards on the Gold Coast, Australia, for her lead role in Elephants in the Fog (Tiniharu), adding to a notable year of international recognition for Nepali cinema.

The award was announced at the ceremony on Friday 30 October, according to reports published in Kathmandu on 31 October. Lama plays Pirati, head of a kinnar family living on the edge of a village. At night, the family patrols the forest to protect the settlement from wild elephants, until one of their own goes missing.

A film with a notable run

The film, written and directed by Abinash Bikram Shah and produced by Anup Poudel, is a co-production involving Nepal, Germany, Brazil, France and Norway. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, in the Un Certain Regard section, where it won the Jury Prize. Reports describe it as the first Nepali feature to win an official award at Cannes. It was released in Nepal in September.

It had three nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards: Best Film, Best Director and Best Performance. Other categories went elsewhere: the Hollywood trade press reported that Georgia's Guria took Best Film and Thailand's Sompot Chidgasornpongse won the director prize. The film has also been selected for festivals including BFI London, which gives it a direct audience connection in the United Kingdom.

What the cast and crew have said

Lama said the honour was "a matter of great pride" for her and that it "has connected me to Pirati's character forever." Shah has said the film took four years to make and has praised Lama's sensitivity, courage and honesty. Reports say the team had planned to travel to Australia but cancelled at the last minute, so no one from the production accepted the award in person. The reason has not been given in the sources reviewed.

Why it matters

The win recognises a performance centred on a marginalised community, in a film made with international partners. For Nepali audiences in Britain, the BFI London connection offers a chance to see the film in a mainstream cultural setting. For the wider industry, a Cannes jury prize followed by a regional best-performance award strengthens the case for sustained investment in Nepali filmmaking and international co-production. Whether the film secures wider UK distribution has not been announced.