India-Set Short Film ‘Period. End of Sentence’ Wins Oscar At 91st Academy Awards

“Period. End of Sentence,” has won the Oscar in the category of Documentary Short Subject at the 91 Academy Awards held in Los Angeles, California, the Business Standard reports.

Various personalities from the Indian Film Industry took to Twitter to show their appreciation for the 26 minute movie.

The film, based on menstruation and set in rural India, has been directed by award winning-filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi and produced by Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment. The short film also is a part of the Pad Project, which was started by students of Los Angeles’s Oakwood School and their teacher, Melissa Berton.

In her acceptance speech, Zehtabchi said, “I'm not crying because I'm on my period or anything. I can't believe a film on menstruation won an Oscar”. Further, she said, “Guneet Monga - know that you have been empowering women all over the world fight for menstrual equality”.

Melissa Berton dedicated the award to her school and said that the project got birth due to her students in LA and the people in India, fighting to make a “human rights difference”.

“I share this award with the Feminist Majority Foundation, the entire team and cast,” Berton says while adding that she is sharing the awards with the teachers and students around the globe, and a period needs to end a sentence and not the education of girls.

The feature is set in the Harpur village on Delhi outskirts, where women led a quiet revolution as they fought against the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation. The women in the town, have not had access to sanitary pads for generations, leading to health issues and girl students dropping out from schools.

The women then learn to manufacture as well as market their sanitary pads after a vending machine for sanitary pads was installed in the village, and thus empowering their community. The brand was named as “FLY”.