Elephants in the Fog: Nepal's Cannes-Winning Feature to Close Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle
Abinash Bikram Shah's Elephants in the Fog — the first Nepali feature selected at Cannes — screens as the closing-night film of the 21st Tasveer Film Festival o
By Nepalese Events Australia Editorial
Published: 2026-09-30T03:30:00.000000Z
Category: Movies & Entertainment
The biggest Nepali film story in America this autumn isn't a commercial release — it's a festival premiere with serious pedigree. Elephants in the Fog, directed by Nepali filmmaker Abinash Bikram Shah, has been selected as the closing-night film of the 21st Tasveer Film Festival & Market, screening on October 18, 2026 at the Tasveer Film Center in Seattle.
Why this selection matters
Tasveer describes itself as the world's only Oscar-qualifying South Asian film festival — films that win qualifying awards there become eligible for Academy Award consideration. A Nepali feature closing the festival's 21st edition is significant exposure in the American independent-film market, and the closing-night slot comes with a Q&A and the festival's awards/dinner reception.
The film arrives with an already remarkable festival history: Elephants in the Fog is identified by the festival as the first Nepali feature selected at Cannes, where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. For Nepali cinema — an industry mostly served domestically and through diaspora screenings — a Cannes laureate closing an Oscar-qualifying US festival is the strongest critical signal the industry has had in years.
Shah is already a known quantity on the international circuit: his short film Lori (Melancholy of My Mother's Lullabies) screened in Cannes' Un Certain Regard in 2021 and earned a special jury mention, making him the rare Nepali director with repeat Cannes credentials. Elephants in the Fog extends that trajectory from short to feature — exactly the path that turns festival attention into distribution conversations.
The Un Certain Regard section, for context, is Cannes' sidebar for innovative and non-traditional filmmaking — a section that has historically launched careers and carries real weight with North American art-house programmers. Winning its Jury Prize means the Tasveer screening is an American audience's first easy chance to see a film critics on the Croisette already endorsed.
About the film
Director: Abinash Bikram Shah
Country: Nepal
Runtime: 108 minutes
Screening: October 18, 2026, closing night & awards ceremony
Venue: Tasveer Film Center, Seattle, Washington
The story centres on Pirati, a member of a Kinnar (third-gender) community living near a forest where wild elephants roam, whose plans are upended when one of her daughters goes missing — a premise that puts one of Nepal's most marginalised communities at the centre of a feature narrative.
Part of a wider Nepali presence at Tasveer
The closing-night slot isn't Nepal's only presence at this year's festival — the short film Taste of Water screens October 17, giving Tasveer 2026 an unusually strong Nepali program. The festival runs October 13–18 across Seattle venues; the full program and passes are on the Tasveer website.
For readers ing Nepali cinema in America, this pairs with the commercial releases covered in our Nepali movies in the USA roundup — festival films like Elephants in the Fog are what move Nepali cinema onto international critics' radars, while the commercial releases build the diaspora box office. Festival-goers coordinating with Kathmandu can check the Nepal–Seattle time difference for the closing-night timing. One practical note for the October 18 gala: closing-night events at Tasveer typically bundle the screening with the awards reception, so confirm whether your pass covers the post-film dinner program or whether it's a separate ticket.
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