Abinash Bikram Shah’s Nepali debut feature Tiniharu (Elephants in the Fog) has won two awards at the 2026 New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF), taking the Fresh Competition Award and the Fresh Audience Award. The festival announced the winners on August 26.
The Fresh Competition Award was decided by a jury, with Tiniharu sharing the top prize with 9 Temples to Heaven. Two other films, La Gradiva and Goodbye, Cruel World, were named joint winners of a second tier of Fresh awards. Tiniharu additionally won the audience prize, making it the only film to receive both a jury award and the audience award in the Fresh competition.
The awards extend the film’s strong international run following its Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Shah’s film is set in a remote Nepali village inhabited by Kinnars, trans women revered by the local community for their perceived healing powers. The story follows Pirati, a community leader whose relationship with a man and plans to leave for Delhi are disrupted when a young Kinnar disappears.
At NZIFF, Tiniharu was programmed in Fresh, the festival’s strand for bold debut features from emerging international filmmakers. The film screened across Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, among other festival venues, with director Shah appearing at several screenings.
The film’s New Zealand recognition also comes in the context of a growing international profile for South Asian independent cinema at the festival. Indian filmmaker Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) was also presented by NZIFF, in the Fresh Competition section of the 2025 edition. The India-UK-Canada co-production, which won the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, follows two childhood friends whose relationship develops into an unexpected romance.
For Tiniharu, however, the NZIFF result marks another significant step in the international trajectory of a Nepali first feature, following its Cannes jury recognition and giving Shah’s film both critical and audience validation in New Zealand.
