'This is a people's film': Director Shashank Walia on Birds in the Dark's win in Busan

Birds in the Dark. Pic via special arrangement

Punjabi feature Birds in the Dark has won the Songwon Vision Audience Award - Asia at the 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), marking a significant milestone for filmmaker Shashank Walia's debut feature. The film received the honour after its world premiere in the festival's Vision section, which showcases independent and distinctive voices in Asian cinema.

Birds in the Dark wins audience award at Busan

Written, cinematographed and directed by Walia, the black-and-white film is set in rural Punjab and explores themes of gender, caste, class, labour, justice and love. The film stars Mauli Singh, Sapna Das, Harwinder Singh Aujila, Navdeep Bajwa and Shahnawaz Bhat.

The Songwon Vision Audience Award - Asia comes with a cash prize of 10 million Korean won, sponsored by the Songwon Culture Foundation. Reflecting on the recognition, Walia said the award belonged to the people who helped bring the film to life.

"I am deeply grateful that Birds in the Dark has won the Audience Award at Busan. We have always thought of this as a people's film, and this recognition belongs, above all, to the people of the five villages in Punjab who came together to make it. We owe the film to them. This award is theirs," he said.

Walia also dedicated the win to workers and people who believe in solidarity and a more just world. Thanking audiences in Busan for their response, he said he hoped the film's message of love and mutual aid would reach more people.

Hansal Mehta, Reema Kaur celebrate film's win

Producer Hansal Mehta, who backed the project alongside Sahil Saigal under True Story Films, said the response from Korean audiences made the recognition particularly meaningful.

"When an audience embraces a fresh voice, chooses subtlety over spectacle, and responds to a film about gender, labour, justice, love and resistance, you realise that as long as cinema like this lives on, there is hope in our world," Mehta said. He also congratulated Walia, producer Reema Kaur and the cast and crew.

Kaur, who produced the film for Two Black Squares and also edited it, described the response as an honour for the team. She thanked audiences in Busan for giving the film a platform and said the makers hoped to take its message of love, solidarity and togetherness to more people.

Founded in 1996, the Busan International Film Festival is among Asia's leading film festivals, known for supporting independent cinema and emerging filmmakers.