Award Screening: Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director: A Suitable Girl

Dipti, Amrita, and Ritu are all young, modern women in India looking to get married—some desperately, some reluctantly. A Suitable Girl follows them over the course of four years as they juggle family, career and friends, intimately capturing their thoughts on arranged marriage, giving them a voice, and offering a unique perspective into the nuances of this institution.

With A Suitable Girl, Filmmakers Sarita Khurana & Smriti Mundhra have achieved what many documentarians can only attempt, taking a topic that many outsiders misunderstand and laying it beautifully bare. In this case, the subject of arranged marriages has become increasingly controversial to the Western world over time, as women have rightfully embraced their independence and released the ties of tradition. In this film, we meet several of these contemporary women, all of whom relish their greatness as individuals while acknowledging the importance of tradition to their identities. A Suitable Girl challenges conventions and reveals truthful portraits of its central subjects with beautiful cinematography, compelling characters, and a gorgeous score from Gingger Shankar.

—Loren Hammonds