Filmmaker Shashank Walia’s rural drama Birds in the Dark, has won the Songwon Vision Audience Award at the 2026 Busan International Film Festival.
The Hansal Mehta-backed Punjabi movie had its world premiere at the film gala under the Vision category on October 10. It was one of the two Indian films in the lineup of 24 movies.
Sponsored by the Songwon Culture Foundation, this award goes to the Asian film in the Vision section that wins the highest number of audience votes, accompanied by a cash prize of KRW 10,000,000 (roughly Rs 7.1 lakh).
Titled Hanere de Panchhi in Punjabi, the movie stars Mauli Singh, Sapna Das, Harwinder Aujla, Shahnawaz Bhat and Navdeep Bajwa. Besides Mehta, Reema Kaur and Sahil Saigal are the other two co-producers on the movie.
“I am deeply grateful that Birds in the Dark has won the Audience Award at Busan. We have always thought of this as a people’s film, and this recognition belongs, above all, to the people of the five villages in Punjab who came together to make it. We owe the film to them. This award is theirs,” Walia said in a statement.
“I dedicate it also to the workers and lovers of the world, and to everyone who still believes that love, mutual aid, and solidarity can bring us closer to a more just world. To the people of Busan: thank you for receiving our film with such warmth,” he added.
Producer Mehta, whose banner True Story Films backed the film, expressed pride over Birds in the Dark winning the Songwon Vision Audience Award and receiving such an overwhelming response from Korean audiences.
“When an audience embraces a fresh voice, chooses subtlety over spectacle, and responds to a film about gender, labour, justice, love and resistance, you realise that as long as cinema like this lives on, there is hope in our world. This award fills me with that hope. I'm very proud of Shashank, Reema and their exceptional cast and crew. Their labour of love has begun its journey with a bang,” he said.
Shot in black and white, the film explores themes of sexuality, patriarchy, farmers’ resistance, and the caste hierarchy.
The story follows Jagtar, a disillusioned police informer who frees Amir, a wrongfully detained Kashmiri Muslim man, before returning to his native village. Back home, he reconnects with Raman, a wealthy landowner and his former lover, while his childhood friend Dilraj—a Dalit farm labourer and activist—spearheads a powerful movement fighting for the rights of landless workers.
The Busan International Film Festival concludes on Thursday.