DIRECTOR Nisha Pahuja’s Notice Pictures/National Film Board of Canada (NFB) co-production To Kill a Tiger has been nominated for the Oscar for Documentary Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
Pahuja is an Indian-born Canadian filmmaker who is based in Toronto.
Pahuja said: “I am beyond thrilled that To Kill a Tiger has been nominated for an Academy Award. This is an extraordinary honour for the creative team behind this eight-year journey, and it’s a testament to the tireless group of women working outside the normal ecosystem to ensure this story is seen and does what it needs to in the world. We’re here, at this moment, because a farmer in India, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter had the courage to demand her human rights.”
She added: “We are grateful to the National Film Board of Canada, our executive producers and everyone on the team for their support. It is our hope and intent that this film will encourage other survivors to seek justice, and that men stand with us in our fight for gender equality.”
In To Kill a Tiger, Ranjit, a farmer in Jharkhand, India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the survivor of sexual assault. In India, where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and conviction rates are less than 30 percent, Ranjit’s decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
The nomination is the latest honour for To Kill a Tiger, which to date has received over 20 Canadian and international awards.
To Kill a Tiger is now streaming free of charge in Canada at nfb.ca and via the NFB app, available on smart TVs and mobile devices.
Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto. Her latest film, To Kill a Tiger, had its world premiere at TIFF, where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Since then, it’s won over 20 awards, including Best Documentary Feature at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and three Canadian Screen Awards.
The film grew out of a long career of addressing various human rights issues, notably violence against women in India. In 2015, Pahuja won an Amnesty International Media Award for Canadian journalism after making a short film about the Delhi bus gang rape for Global News.
Her other past credits include the multi-award-winning The World Before Her (2012; Best Documentary Feature, Jury Award winner, Tribeca Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten; Best Documentary nominee, Canadian Screen Awards), the series Diamond Road (2008; Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series) and the NFB documentary Bollywood Bound (2002; Gemini Award nominee).
