KATHMANDUD, JUNE 30 Emerging filmmaker Mihir Pyakurel's 'I Listen for the Sound of Ashes' won the Best Debut Film Award, while Nishit Thapa's 'The Bus to Bagbazar' secured the Audience Choice Award as the 2026 edition of the Something Like a Film Festival (SLFF) concluded in Kathmandu on Monday. Organised by Documentary Open School (Docskool), the four-day festival showcased 40 films, including 13 Nepali productions, and attracted more than 1,000 viewers, highlighting the growing interest in independent and debut filmmaking. Both award-winning directors are first-time filmmakers.

I Listen for the Sound of Ashes draws on Pyakurel's personal phone conversations with his parents while living abroad, offering an intimate reflection on Nepal's contemporary political and social realities. Meanwhile, The Bus to Bagbazar tells the bittersweet story of a couple whose chance meeting on a bus gradually unfolds into a narrative shaped by family responsibilities and financial uncertainty. The festival also presented its 2026 Freedom Filmmaker Recognition to filmmaker Manoj Pandit for his advocacy for greater artistic freedom in Nepali cinema. According to Docskool, the recognition acknowledges Pandit's contribution to recent reforms in Nepal's film censorship framework. The government recently endorsed a new Cinema Bill that shifts the focus from censorship to age-based film classification, a move supporters say will strengthen creative freedom and reduce state interference in filmmaking.

Held at Airavat Picture House, a 30-seat venue dedicated to alternative cinema, SLFF was first launched in 2011 to provide a platform for young and emerging filmmakers and foster independent filmmaking in Nepal.