Cutting his teeth writing features in Deepak Rauniyar’s Highway (2012 – a Berlinale selection) and Min Bahadur Bham’s Kalo Pothi: The Black Hen (2015’s Venice selection), Nepalese filmmaker Abinash Bikram Shah gradually padded on the shorts with his 2022 short ‘Lori (Melancholy of my Mother’s Lullabies),’ landing in the Palme d’Or competition and nabbing a Special Jury Mention. Having been supported via the likes of Berlinale Talents and Locarno Filmmakers Academy, various A-list funding stages and labs, we might have one of the most anticipated feature debuts for 2026 on our hands here. Here is Everything We Know So Far … about Abinash Bikram Shah’s Elephants in the Fog.
Garnering support from both the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters and Directors Labs in 20923, landing Berlinale World Cinema Fund support, Hubert Bals Fund and Venice Gap-Financing Market, production would have taken place in late 2024. At this year’s European Work in Progress at the Filmfest Hamburg’s Industry Days – the project received some finishing funds.
Coming from a personal place and based on a true-life incident, this is set in a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, the film follows Pirati, the matriarch of a community of transgender women. She aspires to a normal life with Master, the man she loves. But when one of her wards disappears, she must choose between love and responsibility to her community.
We don’t know the identities of the players – so at this point we can guess that they might have cast of non-professionals.
After producing a small sample of his Abinash Bikram Shah’s shorts, Underground Talkies Nepal’s Anup Poudel is the main producer here. We also find some Euro supporters in co-producers Die Gesellschaft DGS’ Michael Henrichs and Les Valseurs’ Justin Pechberty and Damien Megherbi.
With some significant time spent in post – this will likely land at any of the sections (Critics’ Week, Director’s Fortnight or Un Certain Regard) at the Cannes Film Festival.