Bangladeshi filmmaker Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride has won the Independent Film Critics Award, Premio Bisato d’Oro, at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, ahead of the festival’s official awards ceremony.

The recognition marks another milestone for the film, which became the first Bangladeshi feature film to compete in the Orizzonti Competition at the Venice Film Festival this year.

Set in contemporary Dhaka, The Difficult Bride follows Zaineen, a young bride-to-be whose body begins to transform as she undergoes beauty rituals and preparations for her wedding. Blending feminist folk horror, body horror and supernatural elements, the film explores how women’s bodies become sites of family expectations, social control and desire.

For Hossain, the award comes at a significant moment for both Bangladeshi cinema and her filmmaking journey.

“I made The Difficult Bride from a very intimate place, thinking about the ways women learn to inhabit, discipline and sometimes fear their own bodies. To have the film recognised by independent critics in Venice is deeply meaningful to me,” she said.

“I hope the film can open a space for audiences to encounter Bangladesh not simply through its social realities, but through its imagination, its folklore, its darkness and its beauty.”

The Bisato d’Oro is an independent critics’ prize associated with the Venice Film Festival and is separate from the official awards presented by the Biennale. The recognition places The Difficult Bride within the wider critical conversation surrounding this year’s festival.

The film’s Venice selection had already drawn international attention, with critics praising its transformation of South Asian wedding rituals into a feminist folk-horror language. IndieWire described the film as turning South Asian wedding tropes into “feminist folk horror”.

Produced by Francois D’Artemare, The Difficult Bride is an international co-production between Bangladesh, France, Germany, Norway and Portugal. International sales are handled by Films Boutique.

Following its Venice premiere, the film will continue its international festival journey, including its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.