78th Oscar nomination for an NFB film—1st for director Nisha Pahuja. Nisha Pahuja’s Notice Pictures/NFB co-production To Kill a Tiger nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Feature Film.

Nisha Pahuja’s Notice Pictures/National Film Board of Canada (NFB) co-production To Kill a Tiger has been nominated for the Oscar for Documentary Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

Quotes

“I am beyond thrilled that To Kill a Tiger has been nominated for an Academy Award. This is an extraordinary honour for the creative team behind this eight-year journey, and it’s a testament to the tireless group of women working outside the normal ecosystem to ensure this story is seen and does what it needs to in the world. We’re here, at this moment, because a farmer in India, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter had the courage to demand her human rights. We are grateful to the National Film Board of Canada, our executive producers and everyone on the team for their support. It is our hope and intent that this film will encourage other survivors to seek justice, and that men stand with us in our fight for gender equality.”

— Nisha Pahuja

“Congratulations to Nisha Pahuja and her entire production team on a powerful film that follows the unprecedented journey of Ranjit and his courageous daughter as they fight for justice. Today’s nomination is a tribute to them as well as to Nisha’s dedication and vision as a talented filmmaker. As co-producer, the National Film Board of Canada is proud to have helped bring this moving work of non-fiction storytelling to the screen, and to share it with audiences across Canada and around the world.” — Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson

About the film

In To Kill a Tiger, Ranjit, a farmer in Jharkhand, India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the survivor of sexual assault. In India, where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and conviction rates are less than 30 percent, Ranjit’s decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.

The nomination is the latest honour for To Kill a Tiger, which to date has received over 20 Canadian and international awards.

About the nomination

NFB films have now received 78 nominations, more than any other film organization based outside of Hollywood. NFB productions and co-productions have won the big prize on 11 occasions. The NFB also received a 1988 Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.

The 96th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

For more information, visit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/oscars.

Where to watch To Kill a Tiger

To Kill a Tiger is now streaming free of charge in Canada at nfb.ca and via the NFB app, available on smart TVs and mobile devices.

Quick facts

To Kill a Tiger by Nisha Pahuja (127 min)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/to-kill-a-tiger

• In a small Indian village, Ranjit wakes up to find that his 13-year-old daughter has not returned from a family wedding. A few hours later, she’s found stumbling home. After being abducted into the woods, she was sexually assaulted by three men. Ranjit goes to the police, and the men are arrested. But Ranjit’s relief is short-lived, as the villagers and their leaders launch a sustained campaign to force the family to drop the charges.
• To Kill a Tigercharts the emotional journey of an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary circumstances—a father whose love for his daughter forces a social reckoning that will reverberate for years to come.
• Producers: Cornelia Principe and Nisha Pahuja (Notice Pictures); David Oppenheim (NFB)
• Executive producers: Andy Cohen,Anita Lee (NFB), Atul Gawande, Andrew Dragoumis, Dev Patel, Mindy Kaling, Shivani Rawat, Rupi Kaur, Anita Bhatia, Niraj Bhatia, Deepa Mehta, Samarth Sahni, S. Mona Sinha (Equality Now), Mala Gaonkar (Surgo Foundation), Priya Doraswamy, Jason Loftus, Geeta Sondhi, Cornelia Principe

Awards include:

• Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary, Best Editing in a Feature Length Documentary and Best Original Music in a Feature Length Documentary, Canadian Screen Awards;
• Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF);
• Best Documentary Award, Palm Springs International Film Festival;
• Canada’s Top Ten, TIFF;
• Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary, Directors Guild of Canada;
• Beyond the Screen Award, Docaviv;
• Special Jury Award and Michael Sullivan Award for Documentary Journalism, Salem Film Fest, Massachusetts.

About the director

• Nisha Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto. Her latest film, To Kill a Tiger, had its world premiere at TIFF, where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Since then, it’s won over 20 awards, including Best Documentary Feature at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and three Canadian Screen Awards. The film grew out of a long career of addressing various human rights issues, notably violence against women in India. In 2015, Pahuja won an Amnesty International Media Award for Canadian journalism after making a short film about the Delhi bus gang rape for Global News. Her other past credits include the multi-award-winning The World Before Her(2012; Best Documentary Feature, Jury Award winner, Tribeca Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten; Best Documentary nominee, Canadian Screen Awards), the series Diamond Road (2008; Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series) and the NFB documentary Bollywood Bound (2002; Gemini Award nominee).

The NFB is Canada’s public producer and distributor of award-winning documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories and participatory experiences, working with talented creators across the country. The NFB is taking action to combat systemic racism and become a more open and diverse organization, while working to strengthen Indigenous-led production and gender equity in film and digital media. NFB productions have won more than 7,000 awards, including 12 Oscars. To access this unique content, visit NFB.ca.