Karan Kandhari
Personal details
  • Born:
    • Born Place: Kuwait

Karan Kandhari

Karan Kandhari is a British-Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, and multidisciplinary artist—born in the Middle East and now based in London—who trained at the University for the Creative Arts and began his career with avant-garde short films including the United Howl trilogy and the award-winning Hard Hat (2009). Drawing on his deep affinity for cinema from a young age—nurtured through exposure to the French New Wave—Kandhari has crafted a signature style blending surreal humor, punk-inspired visuals, and eclectic soundtracks. His feature directorial debut, Sister Midnight (2024), premiered at Cannes' Directors’ Fortnight, earned a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding Debut, and has been praised for its darkly comic, feminist exploration of arranged marriage and urban alienation in Mumbai, featuring expressive visual storytelling without heavy use of dialogue. Combining genres from slapstick to psychological horror, and shot on 35 mm film with a soundtrack curated by Paul Banks, the film cements Kandhari as an “artist of heterogeneity” drawn to misfits and outsiders—aspects rooted in his own global upbringing.

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