Sundance winner documentary Against The Tide by Sarvnik Kaur wins the top awards at two prestigious film festivals on the same day

It’s a double treat for Sarvnik Kaur’s Sundance winner documentary Against The Tide which won two top awards at two prestigious film festivals, on the same day. The film won the ‘Golden Gateway Award’ at the 23rd Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival and the ‘Best Documentary Film’ at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2023.

The film has won ten awards including a special Jury prize in Vérité Filmmaking at Sundance Film Festival 2023, UN Perception Change Award at Visions du Réel 2023, Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary Competition at Seattle IFF 2023, Sustainable Future Award at Sydney IFF 2023 and Best Feature Award at Ice Docs 2023. It recently won Best Documentary at International South Asian Film Festival Canada.

Against The Tide was the only documentary selected among 14 features in the South Asia Competition section. The 97-minute film in Koli, Marathi, Hindi language is about Two friends, both indigenous Koli Fishermen in Mumbai, who are driven to desperation by a dying sea. Their friendship begins to fracture as they take very different paths to provide for their struggling families.

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Excited about the awards, National Award-winning filmmaker Sarvnik Kaur says, “Last night was something special for Against the Tide as we bagged 2 top awards at 2 prestigious festivals. ATT is awarded the best documentary at Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the Golden Gate at Jio MaMi. We are so honoured and humbled to receive these awards. It’s not just a recognition of the craft and years of toil by my crew but also a recognition of the heroic efforts by the Kolis to live in this apathetic city with dignity and pride. This award is not mine; it belongs to Ganesh, Rakesh and all the other Kolis who persevere with their ancestral value systems and give us the space to call this city our homes.

The producer Koval Bhatia adds, “We are absolutely thrilled to receive the recognition from these incredible institutions: both MAMI and APSA play such an important role in platforming cinema. We hope the tide continues to turn for Indian non fiction and independent cinema, and that these awards help our film reach more audiences. We’re excited for where this journey takes us next”

The film has been edited by Atanas Georgiev (Honeyland) and Blagoja Nedelkovki and Moinak Bose is the sound designer. Igor Vasilev has done the music.

The film produced by Snooker Club Films and A Little Anarky Films in co-production with Les Films de l’Œil Sauvage with the support of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Doc Society Climate Story Fund, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Catapult Film Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, the Sundance Institute, SFFILM, AlterCine Foundation, Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in collaboration with the CNC, Procirep Angoa.