Tamil Malaysian actress Sarah Lingam and Nepali actress Pushpa Thing Lama clinched Best Performance honours at the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) 2026 Awards, for their acting performances in the short film and feature film categories, respectively.
Sarah won for her performance in Krityishaa Karunagaran’s Flame Of The Forest, a short film exploring female rage and the amount of abuse it takes to break someone, even at the worst of times.
In the role, Sarah is goofy yet incredibly intuitive, largely subdued until she’s allowed to explode with emotion in the film’s climax.
“I don’t know if I have justified the role of Kumudha, but I would like to dedicate this award to the actual Kumudha, my director,” said Sarah in her acceptance speech.
Pushpa Thing Lama won her award for her breathtaking performance in Abhinash Bikram Shah’s Elephants In The Fog under the Asian Feature Film Competition.
She played the Kinnar (South Asian third gender community) mother Pirati, whose life gets turned upside down when her daughter goes missing.
Despite being a first-time actress, she steals every scene with poise and eventually a sense of desperation that makes audiences just want to jump out and give her a big hug.
On the future of third gender acting roles, Pushpa said: “Even though we live in a patriarchal society, I’m an optimist. I hope someday more people would dare to cast trans and third gender people in roles– not because they are of that identity, but just because they are human beings.”
Indonesian actress Putri Marino also received the Best Performance reward in this category.
The SGIFF 2026 Silver Screen Awards were held on Oct 31 at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre, where a total of 14 awards were handed out.
