Geeta Gandbhir: Indian-Origin Filmmaker Earns Double Oscar Nominations

Geeta Gandbhir just achieved two Academy Award nominations for her films, "The Devil Is Busy” and “The Perfect Neighbour”. Her work has been officially recognised in both categories of documentary filmmaking at the 98th Academy Awards.

Gandbhir’s films are not designed to comfort the audience. They are designed to confront them. Her documentaries often rely on real-time footage, archival material, and firsthand accounts. This approach places responsibility on viewers to watch closely, to listen, and to sit with discomfort.

Geeta Gandbhir: Early Life and Career

Geeta Gandbhir grew up in the Boston area in an Indian-American immigrant family. Her father, Sharad Gandbhir, moved to the U.S. in the 1960s to study chemical engineering, and her mother, Lalita, later joined him.

Gandbhir studied visual art and animation at Harvard University, where she was introduced to Spike Lee and his longtime collaborator Sam Pollard.

She began her career in narrative filmmaking under their mentorship before transitioning into documentaries, directing early projects such as Hungry to Learn and I Am Evidence.

She later edited the HBO documentary If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise, which won a Peabody Award in 2010, and was part of other works in 2020 and 2022.

In 2025, Gandbhir directed and produced The Perfect Neighbour, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Directing Award.

The same year, she also directed and executive-produced Katrina: Come Hell and High Water for Netflix, continuing her long-standing collaboration with Spike Lee.

Her Oscar Nominations

Her first nomination is for The Perfect Neighbour, a feature-length documentary that reconstructs the 2023 killing of Ajike “AJ” Owens, a Black mother shot by her white neighbour in Florida. Built almost entirely from police body-cam footage and surveillance videos,

The second nomination, The Devil Is Busy, is a documentary short that follows a single day at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta.

Through the perspective of the clinic’s security head, the film exposes the constant pressure and danger faced by staff and patients amid ongoing protests on how the patients are treated with utmost care and responsibility.

Why She Matters

Geeta Gandbhir’s work shows how powerful real stories can be when told honestly. Her nominations for the Oscars reflect years of steady effort and meaningful filmmaking, not overnight success. 

As her films reach more people, they continue to spark important conversations and keep real issues in focus. Her journey proves that documentaries rooted in truth, objectivity and courage can still break through the highest gates of the film industry.