Fridae

Pushpa Thing Lama has won Best Performance at the 2026 Asia Pacific Screen Awards for Elephants in the Fog, a film centred on a Kinnar community in Nepal. Screen Daily reported the result on 30 October after the awards ceremony on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Lama plays Pirati, a community matriarch who wants to leave with the man she loves. When one of her daughters disappears, that plan gives way to a search. The official Cannes programme names Lama in the role and describes Pirati’s conflict between personal freedom and responsibility to her community.

The Singapore International Film Festival’s synopsis describes the Kinnar characters as a third-gender community. It places Pirati and her chosen family in a remote forest village, where residents patrol at night to protect their homes and crops from wild elephants.

Abinash Bikram Shah wrote and directed the film, a production involving Nepal, France, Germany, Brazil and Norway. Earlier in 2026, it won the Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.