Geeta Gandbhir (USA)
Co-Founder
Message Pictures

Geeta Gandbhir is the director of the 2026 Academy Award®-nominated feature documentary The Perfect Neighbor. She is also the co-director of the 2026 Academy Award®-nominated short film The Devil is Busy.

Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor premiered at Sundance in 2025, where it won the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary. It was a five-time winner at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards including Best Director and Best Documentary Feature, the F:ACT Award – Honorable Mention at CPH:DOX, and won Outstanding Achievement in Direction, Cinema Eye Honors.

She began her career in narrative film, learning from Spike Lee and Sam Pollard. After working for eleven years in scripted films, collaborating with renowned figures such as the Coen Brothers, Robert Altman, and others, she transitioned into documentary filmmaking. She directed notable works such as Born in Synanon, Eyes on the Prize, and Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, which received acclaim and awards

She directed and show-ran Black and Missing for HBO, winning a NAACP Award and an Independent Spirit Award. Her film Apart earned an Emmy Award nomination and a win. She’s been recognised for her short film Call Center Blues and her work on The Asian Americans, both receiving prestigious awards. Gandbhir also served as an executive producer on Harlem Ice, a 5-part Disney+ & Imagine Documentaries docuseries that premiered in February 2025

As a co-director and co-producer, Gandbhir has been involved in various projects, including A Conversation on Race series and the HBO film The Sentence, which won a Primetime Emmy.

Her editing work has contributed to films earning multiple Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, and an Academy Award.