LOS ANGELES: Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir on Thursday earned two Oscar nominations -- for her short The Devil Is Busy in the best documentary short category and The Perfect Neighbor in the best documentary feature segment.
The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.
Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton have co-directed The Devil Is Busy, which will compete against All the Empty Rooms, Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, Children No More: Were and Are Gone and Perfectly a Strangeness in the best documentary short segment.
The 31-minute film follows Tracii, the head of security at a women's healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, over the course of a day as she works to ensure the safety of patients and staff amid tighter abortion restrictions and persistent protests.
In the documentary feature film category, Gandbhir's The Perfect Neighbor is among the nominees, alongside The Alabama Solution, Come See Me in the Good Light, Cutting through Rocks and Mr.Nobody against Putin.
The Netflix documentary chronicles the shooting incident in June 2023 where a white female, Susan Louise Lorincz, fatally shot her black female neighbour Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida.
Gandbhir has also produced the movie along with Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu and Sam Bisbee.
Gandbhir, a director mentored by Sam Pollard and Spike Lee, was born to Indian parents who emigrated to the US in the 1960s.
She has built a distinguished career in documentary filmmaking over nearly two decades, earning multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards along the way.
Some of her acclaimed projects include I Am Evidence (2017), which exposed systemic delays in processing untested rape kits across the United States, and Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (2022), which won industry accolades for its historical depth and narrative strength.
She has also directed the Emmy-winning short Through Our Eyes: Apart in 2022.
The 98th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.