New Delhi:In its debut year at Cannes Film Festival 2026, the Nepali film Elephants in the Fog has made history by becoming the first movie to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival, 2026. The film won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 79th edition of the international film festival.
The film is also the first Nepali film to be selected for the parallel section of the competition for the Palme d’Or. It is written and directed by Abinash Bikram Shah, in his debut as a director.
Story of Elephants in the Mist
Elephants in the Fog is set in Thori, a small forested village in the Terai plains of southern Nepal. The film is about the lives of transgender women living in a society which does not accept them.
The movie is about Pirati, the matriarch of a Kinnar community, who wants to escape and live with her lover, but her daughter goes missing, putting her dreams to rest. She will have to choose between her desire for freedom and her responsibility to her community, the official synopsis says.
Abinash Bikram Shah’s acceptance speech
The lives of Pirati and her daughters, the communities and all the persons, who are in the East, have been kept invisible for such a long time. We’ve brought those margins to light by bringing our story here, and by giving us this award. In his acceptance speech, Abinash Bikram Shah said, "We have made the invisible visible."
Elephants in the Fog cast and creators
Pushpa Thing, Deepika Yadav, Jasmine Bishwakarma, Shanti Giri, Gauri Malla, Maotse Gurung, Sanjay Gupta Dura, Mahima Nawabag and Akanksha Karki are featured in Elephants in the Fog.
It is co-produced by two Nepalese film production companies: Underground Talkies Nepal and Jayanthi Creations, in association with companies from France, Germany, Brazil,
Abinash Bikram Shah in Cannes
Cannes is not new territory for Shah who bagged the Special Mention Award for his short film, Lori, at the 75th edition of the festival. Shah became the first Nepali filmmaker whose short film bagged the award. He has previously written films including Kalo Pothi, Highway and Tatini.
Cannes 2026 prizes
Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner’s Everytime won the main Un Certain Regard prize. The film follows a family on vacation whose life is forever changed by a tragedy. The Special Jury Prize went to Iron Boy, the debut feature of Pixar veteran Louis Clichy, who had been working as an animator on WALL-E and Up. Iron Boy is a hand-drawn animated film about an 11-year-old boy raised in rural France.
Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset won best actor for his role in Rafiki Fariala’s Congo Boy. The best actress award was shared by the three actresses who featured in Valentina Maurel’s Costa Rica-set family drama Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno – Marina de Tavira, Daniela Marin Navarro and Mariangel Villegas.
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