Geetanjali Thapa won the award for Best Performance in the Narrative Competition for Kamal K.M’s I.D. at the Los Angeles Film Festival that concluded recently.

Thapa plays a carefree young woman living in Mumbai named Charu who’s visited by painter who’s hired to paint a wall in her apartment. Things turn around when the man falls unconscious, Charu discovers that she alone must attend to this stranger, first getting him to the hospital and then trying to discover who he is.

The Jury stated: Thapa’s performance is recognized in part for her ability to win over the audience’s empathy for a character that initially lacks, indeed even resists, empathy. Rarely conversational, her ability to speak volumes with gesture and silence is a revelation to the audience. With an onscreen presence that commands attention, we see her rising star as something that excites us as filmmakers, and we are privileged to bear witness to the start of Thapa’s very promising career.”

The Narrative Feature Competition Jury was comprised of Film Independent Spirit Award-winning producer Gina Kwon (Me and You and Everyone We Know, Chuck & Buck), Spirit Award-winning director Sean Baker (Starlet, Take Out, Prince of Broadway) and actor-producer Harry Lennix (Man of Steel, Titus, the upcoming NBC series The Blacklist).