Oscars 2026: Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir loses in documentary categories
What's the story
Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir, who made history by becoming the first woman to be nominated in both the Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short categories at the 2026 Oscars, has lost in both categories. Her documentary short The Devil Is Busy, co-directed with Christalyn Hampton, was up against All the Empty Rooms (winner), Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, Children No More: Were and Are Gone, and Perfectly a Strangeness.
Feature category
'The Perfect Neighbor' lost to 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin'
In the Best Documentary Feature category, Gandbhir's The Perfect Neighbor went up against The Alabama Solution, Come See Me in the Good Light, Cutting through Rocks, and Mr. Nobody Against Putin. However, she lost to the makers of Mr. Nobody Against Putin. The Perfect Neighbor is a Netflix documentary that chronicles the shooting incident in June 2023, where a white female, Susan Louise Lorincz, fatally shot her Black female neighbor Ajike Owens in Ocala, Florida.
Career highlights
Gandbhir's other notable projects
The Devil Is Busy follows the head of security at a women's healthcare clinic as she works to protect patients and staff amid tighter abortion restrictions and continued protests. Gandbhir, a protege of Sam Pollard and Spike Lee, has been active in the field of documentary filmmaking for 20 years. She has won multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards. Some of her notable ventures are I Am Evidence (2017) and Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (2022).