Indian film Vimukt wins NETPAC Award at TIFF
The Indian feature film Vimukt, directed by Jitank Singh Gurjar, has won the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Recognized as the largest film festival in North America, TIFF took place from September 4 to 14, 2025, in Toronto, the capital of Ontario, eastern Canada.
Report by Keoprasith Souvannavong
World premiered at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, “Vimukt” (English title: “In Search of The Sky”) is a 2025 Braj-language drama, a truly independent achievement by Indian filmmaker Jitank Singh Gurjar. The film transports the audience to rural central India, where an impoverished elderly couple contends with their cognitively challenged adult son and the villagers who threaten their existence. A beacon of hope comes in the form of the Maha Kumbh Mela, a pilgrimage to the world’s largest spiritual gathering where they seek renewal and new possibilities of life.
A unique lens of realism and poetics
With a realistic tone in the first part, before sliding into sensory surrealism in the second, “Vimukt” is an accomplished feature film which received the NETPAC Award “For offering an indelible tale of tolerance, desperation and faith, conveyed through a unique lens of realism and poetics, elevated by striking performances”, as the NETPAC jury’s citation indicates.
NETPAC Jury Composition
The NETPAC jury at the 50th TIFF was composed of Dina Iordanova (professor of global cinema, expert in transnational film festivals), Helen Lee (a Seoul-born, Toronto-based filmmaker) and chaired by Keoprasith Souvannavong (a French-Laotian journalist at Radio France Internationale and actor in the film “The Scent of Green Papaya”, which received the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival).
A high quality selection
The NETPAC jury considered a lineup of 16 films exploring universal themes — love, family, childhood, education, intergenerational trauma, the search for identity, obscurantism, poverty, corruption, and power, among others.
Within this high-quality selection, notable titles include:
As We Breathe, the debut feature by Turkish director Seyhmus Altun, is a haunting drama that unfolds in the aftermath of a chemical plant explosion, where a fire continues to burn endlessly. The story is seen largely through the eyes of ten-year-old Esma, portrayed with remarkable subtlety by Defne Zeynep Enci, whose silences and glances convey more than words ever could. With its spare narrative style and luminous, pared-down cinematography, the film captures a fractured family and a sacrificed childhood. At the same time, it offers a veiled yet powerful critique of the authorities’ inertia in the face of disasters that seep into everyday life and are passively accepted as fate.
Girl, the debut feature written and directed by Taiwanese star Shu Qi, offers a raw and intimate portrait of an introverted teenager navigating life with her mother and sister in a fractured household. With an alcoholic father whose presence fuels tension, violence, and humiliation, the film draws deeply from Shu Qi’s own childhood, marked by trauma and resilience. The result is a moving exploration of intergenerational scars and survival.
Reflecting on her transition from actor to filmmaker, Shu Qi shared on stage with a smile: “Of course, I had no real experience as a director. But when I arrived on set, to reassure myself, I thought: since I am an actress, I can just as well take on the role of a director. And that’s how I began directing the actors.”
Her cinematic language bears the imprint of her mentor, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who once entrusted her with the lead role in The Assassin — a visually stunning masterpiece that earned him the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015.
Hamnet wins top Toronto film prize
Family dramas also appear in other films in the program that were not among the 16 titles submitted to the NETPAC jury. One such example is “Hamnet”, a film that offers a fictional exploration of the grief experienced by Agnes and William Shakespeare following the death of their son, and which won the People’s Choice Award — the most prestigious prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. (It is worth noting that, unlike Cannes or Venice, in Toronto it is the audience that decides the awards. Any film in the program is eligible, whereas at those festivals, only titles screened in competition categories may be considered.)
A springboard to the Oscars
Hamnet explores a little-known chapter in the life of the famous British writer William Shakespeare, who is believed to have had a son named Hamnet. Director Chloé Zhao drew inspiration for this historical drama from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name. With this award, the film emerges as a leading contender for the 2026 Oscars. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Audience Award has, in fact, become a reliable indicator of future Oscar success. This is why TIFF, the largest film festival in North America, is widely regarded as a springboard to those Oscars.
Besides, this marks Chloé Zhao’s second People’s Choice Award, following her 2020 triumph with Nomadland, a semi-fictional drama about American West nomads that went on to claim three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Frances McDormand. Born in Beijing and now 43, Zhao made history as the second woman — and the first Asian woman — to win the Academy Award for Best Director.
Warm Thanks from the NETPAC Jury
Hamnet made its Canadian premiere at TIFF, part of a lineup of over 200 films, many of which had already been showcased at other festivals such as Cannes, Venice, or Telluride.
During the 11 days of TIFF’s 50th edition, which draws around 400,000 attendees each year, the spotlight was on numerous Hollywood stars walking the red carpet in Toronto — a prime opportunity for the festival to capture global attention. Among the celebrities present were Angelina Jolie, Jodie Foster, Scarlett Johansson, Sydney Sweeney, Russell Crowe, Daniel Craig, Keanu Reeves, Matthew McConaughey, Dwayne Johnson, and Channing Tatum, to name just a few, not to mention Brendan Fraser, the 2023 Oscar winner for Best Actor for “The Whale”.
Far less famous than these Hollywood stars but passionate about Asian cinema and beyond, the NETPAC jury members wish to warmly thank the TIFF organizers, especially Invitation and Jury Coordinator Tammy Taeim Park, who worked tirelessly to support the jury and make their stay enjoyable. They also extend their gratitude to the 2,000 volunteers whose dedication contributed to the success and international visibility of TIFF and the city of Toronto, an economic hub of 2.8 million people and often described as the world’s most cosmopolitan city.
Written by Keoprasith SOUVANNAVONG (Laos / France).
Based in Paris, Keoprasith Souvannavong is a radio, television and written press journalist. He has worked since 1993 for Radio France International (RFI), for which he has covered various international film festivals. Fond of cinema, he also acted in the feature film “The Scent of Green Papaya”, which received the “Caméra d’or” and “Prix de la jeunesse” awards at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the “César” award in Paris as the best first feature film, and which was later nominated for an Oscar as the best foreign film. He has also been a jury member and president of various juries at different film festivals in the world. He is also a member of the Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC).