The U.K. has selected Santosh, an Indian police procedural from director Sandhya Suri, to represent the country in the 2025 Oscars in the best international feature category.
Shahana Goswami stars as the titular Santosh, a driven young Hindu widow who inherits her husband’s job as a police constable thanks to a government scheme. She finds herself caught up in institutional corruption even as she warms to working with rough-edged veteran detective Inspector Sharma (Sunita Rajwar) on a brutal murder case involving a teenage girl from the lower caste Dalit community.
Santosh premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section this year, where it was quickly snatched up for North America by Metrograph Pictures. The Hollywood Reporter‘s review called the feature “gripping and engrossing” singling out Suri’s screenplay for praise. “Instead of unwieldy expository dialogue, Suri relies on conversations between Santosh and Sharma to shed light on the forces — a discriminatory society, a corrupt workplace — that might drive these two women into a kind of reluctant Faustian alliance.”
Santosh marks Suri’s narrative feature debut after her breakout documentary I For India (2005), and her short drama The Field, which won best international short in Toronto in 2018 and picked up a 2019 BAFTA nomination.
The United Kingdom has had three films nominated for the Academy Awards in the best international feature category and won its first Oscar this year when Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest took the top honor.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will unveil its 2025 Oscar shortlist, including best international feature contenders on December 17. Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 17, 2025. The 97th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2.
