Bengaluru girl Anisha Acharya wins at Student Oscars 2015

Day One, a film edited by Anisha Acharya, has won the Students Oscar in the narrative category at Los Angeles last week. The 25-minute film was made by students of the American Film Institute (AFI) in 2014. 

The movie, based on a real-life story, is about an interpreter from the US Army who on his first day in Afghanistan has to go in search of an enemy bomb-maker. When they find the house, the bomb-maker’s wife goes into labour and she is forced to deliver the child. Day One has been directed by Henry Hughes.

Anisha, 30, edited the film as part of her thesis at AFI where she was studying. Originally from Bangalore, Anisha studied at Sri Aurobindo Memorial School and then did her graduation from NIFT, Bangalore. She then joined AFI in 2012 to study editing and graduated in 2014. Her parents Dr Jagabandhu Acharya and Shambhavi Acharya, work in the area of social development in Bangalore. Her grandfather was late CK Nagaraja Rao, a renowned writer and dramatist. 

Day One has won many awards including the Jury Award and the Best Short Story at the Stony Brook Film Festival and the Oxford Film Festival; Best Student Short Story and Audience Award at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival; Best Narrative Short at the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival and jury prize at the USA Film Festival.