QUEEN’S ROAD: A film edited by Bengaluru girl Anisha Acharya has won this year’s Student Oscar. A graduate from NIFT Bangalore in accessory design, Anisha joined the master’s course in film editing at the American Film Institute (AFI) at Los Angeles in 2012.
The gold winning film Day One was made by Anisha and her team as part of their curriculum. The Academy Awards were instituted in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work. Gold, silver and bronze awards are presented every year in five categories: alternative, animation, documentary, foreign and narrative. Day One won the award in the narrative category.
Anisha’s mother Shambhavi Acharya told City Express that her daughter was always interested in the creative arts and actively pursued them. “It was a great feeling to know that her film won the prestigious award after competing on the international stage,” says Shambhavi.
Anisha, who did her schooling at Sri Aurobindo Memorial School in Banashankari II Stage, joined NIFT after her pre-university. “She freelanced for a couple of years and joined the American Film Institute in the US,” says Shambhavi, whose husband Dr. Jagabandhu Acharya, is a social development professional.
Inspired by a true story, Day One is about an interpreter for the US Army who is forced to deliver the child of an enemy bomb-maker on her first day in Afghanistan. Day One is written and directed by Henry Hughes.
Besides the Student Oscar, the film has also won the prestigious BAFTA US Student Award and the Student Emmy Award, and a number of awards in various film festivals.
Anisha is the granddaughter of freedom fighters and writers from Odisha, late Pandit Kirtan Bihari Acharya and Taramani Acharya. She’s the maternal granddaughter of the renowned Moorthy Devi Award recipient, late C K Nagaraja Rao and musician and writer Rajamani N. Rao.