At the 13th Nepal Africa International Film Festival-2025, actor Bipin Karki and actress Varsha Raut won the best actor and actress awards. In the ’13th Nepal Africa International Film Festival-2025,’ which started on Friday, 9th of February, Bipin Karki won the best actor from Telvisa, and Barsha Raut won the best actress from Ainchopaincho. Awards were presented in 31 categories at the festival. This festival was organized by the College of Journalism and Mass Communication and Sintak Creation Pvt. Ltd. and jointly organized by the Film Development Board at the Nepal Tourism Board located at Bhrikuti Mandap in Kathmandu.

The best films and filmmakers were awarded by screening films for three days at the festival. 49 films from 17 countries, including Nepal, participated in the festival. Among the 30 films participating in the festival, 7 were narrative films. In which the best national film award went to Chakka Panja 5, the director’s jury award went to Dipashree Niraula, and the best supporting actor award went to Kedar Prasad Ghimire.

Shankar Ghimire won the best director award for the movie Tel Visa, and Richa Ghimire won the best supporting actress award. The Special Mention Award went to Rishiraj Acharya from the movie Draupadi, the Jury Award went to actress Ashwini Shahi from Draupadi, and Krisha Chaulagai won the Best New Director Award from Aincho Paincho.

Anushka Budhathoki won the New Actress award for the movie Sankalp, while Hercules Basnet got the music composer award for the Khula Akash song from the movie London to Paris. Film director Milan Chams, journalist Raghunath Sapkota, and singer Shobha Pandey were among the judges of the plot movie.

Similarly, in the national category, Santosh Subedi received the best short film award from The Tree Man, Kripa Pakurel received the best acting award from No Smoking Please, and Bhupendra Kumar Khadka received the special mention award from No Smoking Please. The musical short film and director award went to Sonam Pakhrin for the song movie Tu Anga Rahechu. Sanam Kathayat won the best musical film actor award for Bhulnai Garo Bho.

Similarly, Pabitra Shaki (Miss Pabi) won the best actress award in a musical short film, Hemant Shishir along with the best musical film singer award from Juni Katamla, and Rabita Magar won the dance choreographer award in a musical short film from Think About You.

Shiva Puri won the best documentary and director award for Designed to Disappear. Shiva Puri also won the best editor award for Designed to Disappear. Sagar Kerung’s directed film K 2 won the national tribal film award, and Mohan Abhilashi won the minor student film award for The School Wall.

The judges of this group were actor-model Sagar Lamsal Kshetri, video editor Rabin BK, singer Sujata KC, and singer Rudra Shekhar Sharma. Similarly, this year’s film journalist award was received by Bishnu Prasad Subedi, a journalist from Lens Nepal. Festival Chairman Dr. Manju Mishra Awards were presented to local and foreign winners at the closing ceremony under the chairmanship and Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation Badri Prasad Pandey as chief guest.

In this festival, the best African film award was given to Good Mother from South Africa, while the African documentary award was given to Cameroon’s documentary Zayed. The International Documentary Award was won by Looney Tunes, a documentary directed by Devendra Jadav from India, while the International Film Award was won by the Bangladeshi film Sauda. The British short film Gentle Puppets for Dignified Ministries won the Special Mention Award of the International Short Film, and the International Jury Award went to the short film The Temple of Eternal Sound from Argentina.

The judges for the international category were Katherine Sofianoz from South Africa, Ankit Bagchi from India, Shahadat Russell from Bangladesh, and producer-director-actress Roshni KC from Nepal.

The guests of the ceremony, along with the Minister of Culture, Nepali Ambassador to Sri Lanka Dr. Full Nepali, National Assembly members Jag Prasad Sharma, Sita Boudel, President of International Federation of Journalists Ram Prasad Khanal, Mohan Niraula, president of Nepal Film Artists Association, outgoing president Krishna Malla, Rabindra Khadka, program manager of Jiz Dr. Bernd Alpot, and others, honored the award-winning filmmakers.