Sayani Gupta Wins IFFSA South Asian Screen Excellence Award on Her Birthday

Sayani Gupta celebrated her birthday by receiving the South Asian Screen Excellence Award at the International Film Festival of South Asia (IFFSA) in Toronto. She is attending the festival as Guest of Honour, where her directorial debut, Aasmani, is screening alongside her summit session titled Becoming a Star, Remaining an Actor.

This honour joins a list of previous award recipients including Shabana Azmi, Boman Irani, Imtiaz Ali, Tillotama Shome, and Deepa Mehta. It also marks Sayani's second win in Canada within two weeks, following her receipt of the Leadership in Film Award 2026 at the International South Asian Film Festival (iSAFF) in Vancouver, where Aasmani also earned an Honourable Mention for Excellence in Short Film Making.

Aasmani has collected several other accolades, including Best Short Film at the Atlanta Indian Film Festival. In Boston, Sayani received the Best Director (Short Film) award, while young actor Daria Bedi won Best Child Actor. The film is also scheduled to screen at the La Femme International Film Festival in Los Angeles.

In addition to her filmmaking work, Sayani was named Best Actress (Web Series) at the 14th Indian Cine Film Festival 2026 for playing Damini Rizvi Roy in Four More Shots Please! Season 4.

Her busy month of festival appearances, screenings, and award ceremonies has included stops in Washington, DC, Toronto for TIFF, Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, Atlanta, Tokyo, and Kerala.