‘Anuja’, Smrithi Mundhra, Nominated For Oscars

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Short films about life & death make the Oscar cut

Short film Anuja, a story about a nine-year-old garment factory worker in Delhi who is offered a life-changing opportunity,  is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 97th Academy Awards. Also nominated for Best Documentary Short Film is Academy Award-nominated Smriti Mundhra’s I Am Ready, Warden, which follows a Texas death row prisoner who seeks forgiveness from his victim’s son. The nominations were announced on January 23. 

Santosh, U.K.’s Indian crime drama that made it to the Oscar shortlist, did not make the final nomination.

Anuja is directed by Denver-based philosophy professor and filmmaker Adam J. Graves. Graves holds a B.A. in South Asian studies and has lived extensively in India, where he studied Sanskrit at the Banaras Hindu University and volunteered with youth-focused nonprofits across north India. The film is co-produced by his wife and artist Suchitra Mattai. 
The film has garnered some serious support from South Asian heavy hitters. Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga Kapoor, and actors-producers Priyanka Chopra and Mindy Kaling have come on board as producers.

Anuja will be competing with A Lien by Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz, I’m Not a Robot by Victoria Warmerdam and Trent, The Last Ranger by Cindy Lee and Darwin Shaw, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević and Danijel Pek.

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This is the second Academy Awards nomination for Smriti Mundhra, creator of the blockbuster Netflix reality TV series Indian Matchmaking. She was previously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject for her film St. Louis Superman (2019). 

I Am Ready, Warden – produced by Mundhra, Maya Gnyp, Keri Blakinger and Nina Anand Aujla – is nominated along with Death by Numbers by Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard, Incident by Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven, Instruments of a Beating Heart by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari, and The Only Girl in the Orchestra by Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington. 

Anuja will be on Netflix shortly. I Am Ready, Warden is available to watch on Paramount+ The Academy Awards are scheduled to be presented on March 2 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.