Anuparna Roy Returns To Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti Competition With Lovers In The Blue Night
Issued: 24/Jul/2026, OutlookIndia.com. India.
The filmmaker pulled off a coup in heading back to Venice with her second film, a year after winning Best Director in Orizzonti for Songs of Forgotten Trees.
A year after she became the first Indian filmmaker to win the Best Director Award at the Venice International Film Festival in the Orizzonti Competition with Songs of Forgotten Trees, Anuparna Roy is returning to the fest wih her sophomore, Lovers In The Blue Night. The new film is going to premiere in the same strand. Selected at upcoming 83rd edition, Roy emerges one of the very few Indian filmmakers to have two consecutive features premiere in competition at Venice.
The official synopsis for the film reads: set against Mumbai’s restless nights, Lovers In The Blue Night follows four migrants—a closeted husband, his lonely wife who works in a bar, a small-time thief and a pimp—whose lives intersect through unexpected love, survival and forbidden desire. Told in Hindi with Sylheti Bengali and Marathi, the film explores longing, migration, identity and the search for belonging in a city that leaves little room for vulnerability.
Lovers In The Blue Night features an ensemble cast including Neelima Sharma, Pritam Pilania, Bhushan Shimpi, Jatin Sarin, Kajal Keshav, and Vinod Suryavanshi.The film is shot by Debjit Samanta, with Ketul Thakkar attached as editor and Nishant Ramtake composing the original score. Completing the technical team are production designer Karan Gupta, costume designer Muskan Mittal, makeup artist Bashir Shaikh, and Arka Dey handling sound recording, design, and mixing.