Born in Bangalore in 1986, Saumyananda Sahi was the youngest participant in the 2004 Talent Campus India and the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2005. Over the past decade, Sahi has collaborated as a cinematographer with eminent directors including Kamal Swaroop, Thomas F. Lennon, Gitanjali Rao and Arun Karthick. Balekempa, which Sahi also edited, won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2018 International Film Festival Rotterdam. He has won several awards including Mumbai International Film Festival’s National Award for Best Cinematography (Long Documentary) with Have You Seen the Arana? (2014) and IDSFFK 2014 Navroze Contractor Award for Best Documentary Cinematographer for Rangbhoomi (2013). He also directed the documentary Small Things, Big Things (2015).
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
