Geeta makes history, even before Oscar night

Gandbhir is first woman to receive nods for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short in a single year

- By Areeba Hashmi Special to Gulf News

When the 2026 Oscar nominations were announced, Geeta Gandbhir was asleep. She had been awake until 3am the night before, too anxious to rest, and had finally drifted off just before the news broke.

"Don't judge me. I slept through the nominations," she laughed, speaking to Reuters. "I was so anxious the night before. I planned to go to bed early and sleep well, but I was awake until three in the morning, staring at the ceiling."

She woke up to history.

Gandbhir, an Indian-American documentary filmmaker based in the United States, has become the first woman ever to receive Oscar nominations for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short in the same year.

A MILESTONE

Her two films, The Perfect Neighbor and The Devil is Busy, are in the running at the 98th Academy Awards Sunday.

It is a milestone that has never been achieved before, and it happened in a year where both films were already on the Academy's shortlist of 15 before nominations were announced. She had reason to be hopeful. She just was not expecting it to land quite like this.