Elephants in the Fog: Cannes-Winning Nepali Film Lands at BFI London Film Festival
Abinash Bikram Shah's Elephants in the Fog — the first Nepali film in Cannes Official Selection — screens at the BFI London Film Festival on October 17–18 at Vu
By Nepalese Events Australia Editorial
Published: 2026-09-30T04:30:00.000000Z
Category: Movies & Entertainment
The most decorated Nepali film of the year arrives in London. Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah's Cannes-winning feature, screens at the BFI London Film Festival with sessions on October 17 at Vue West End and October 18 at BFI Southbank, presented in Nepali with English subtitles.
The film and its Cannes history
The BFI's own listing carries the headline fact: Elephants in the Fog made history as the first Nepali film selected in Cannes' Official Selection, where it went on to win the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. A Nepal-France-Germany-Brazil-Norway co-production running approximately 103 minutes, it follows Pirati, matriarch of a Kinnar (third-gender) community in rural Nepal, whose search for her missing daughter exposes the tensions between her community and the surrounding village.
Shah — who also wrote the screenplay — is no stranger to the Croisette: his short Lori played Un Certain Regard in 2021. But a feature selection, and the Jury Prize, is a different level of recognition for a national cinema that has mostly travelled through diaspora circuits.
London screenings
Festival: BFI London Film Festival 2026
Screenings: October 17 — Vue West End; October 18 — BFI Southbank
Format: Nepali with English subtitles; ~103 min
The BFI London Film Festival, running each October since 1957, is the UK's premier showcase for international cinema — the same festival where Palme d'Or winners and Oscar frontrunners get their British premieres. A Nepali film holding an Official Selection-adjacent slot here places it in front of the British industry's programmers and critics, not only its diaspora audience — which is precisely the audience expansion Nepali cinema needs.
Festival screenings at this level sell on schedule release, and LFF tickets for international award titles routinely go fast — check the BFI listings and Clusterflick's aggregated sessions for availability. Vue West End on Leicester Square is the festival's commercial-house venue; BFI Southbank the institutional one — either is an easy central-London trip.
What the Kinnar story brings to the screen
The film's Kinnar framing deserves note for audiences unfamiliar: the third-gender community in Nepal is legally recognised — Nepal was among the first countries to issue third-gender citizenship documents — but socially marginalised, and centring a Kinnar matriarch in a feature narrative is itself a statement. For the diaspora audience, it's also a rare window into a Nepal most overseas Nepalis know more from news coverage than lived proximity.
One useful tip for diaspora viewers deciding which session to book: Vue West End (October 17) is the livelier crowd — Leicester Square on a Saturday night, likely to draw the community and industry mix — while BFI Southbank (October 18) is the film-institute setting where the post-screening conversation tends to run deeper. Same film, different evenings; pick according to mood rather than assuming one is "better."
Beyond London
The film's British run doesn't end at LFF: it returns for the Cambridge Film Festival on October 27 and 29, after German screenings covered in our Hamburg report and a US closing-night slot at Seattle's Tasveer festival covered on our USA desk. Our feature on Nepali cinema's European breakthrough year puts the film's journey in context — and the UK news desk s its British screenings as more sessions are announced.
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