Washington [US], September 25 : The United Kingdom has chosen Santosh, an Indian police procedural directed by Sandhya Suri, as its official entry for the 2025 Oscars in the Best International Feature category, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film stars Shahana Goswami as Santosh, a young Hindu widow who inherits her late husband's position as a police constable through a government scheme. As she steps into the role, she becomes entangled in institutional corruption. She teams up with veteran detective Inspector Sharma, played by Sunita Rajwar, to investigate the murder of a teenage girl from the lower-caste Dalit community.
Santosh premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, where it received a lot of attention. North American distribution rights were quickly picked up by Metrograph Pictures.
Santosh marks Sandhya Suri's first narrative feature after her acclaimed documentary I For India (2005) and her award-winning short film The Field, which won Best International Short at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018 and earned a BAFTA nomination in 2019.
The U.K. has been nominated for the Best International Feature category at the Academy Awards three times, winning its first Oscar earlier this year with Jonathan Glazer's Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest.
The shortlist for the 2025 Oscars, including contenders for Best International Feature, will be announced on December 17, 2024, with official nominations to follow on January 17, 2025. The 97th Academy Awards will take place on March 2, 2025.