Sank Roshan’s Short Film ‘The Liar’ Earns 40 International Festival Recognitions

GDAŃSK, Poland — Behind the milestone is a years-long commitment to filmmaking, the decision to leave financial security behind, and the determination to pursue a creative purpose in a foreign country. For independent filmmaker Sank Roshan, the journey towards cinema began long before his debut short film, 'The Liar', started attracting international festival recognition. It began during his second year of engineering, when he first realised that filmmaking was something he wanted to pursue seriously.

Life, however, did not immediately follow that direction.

With an educational background in electronics engineering, Sank entered the corporate sector to establish financial independence and build a stable professional life. Yet even as his career developed, his passion for filmmaking remained alive. He continued exploring what he could create with limited resources while navigating the practical responsibilities and personal challenges of everyday life.

Years later, that persistent ambition would lead him to make a series of decisions that changed the direction of his life: leaving behind a secure professional trajectory, moving from India to Poland to pursue his Master's studies, and committing himself to building a future in filmmaking without the guarantees of financial stability or an established industry network.

Today, his live-action 17-minute English-language psychological techno-thriller 'The Liar' has accumulated 40 international festival recognitions, comprising awards, nominations, finalist placements and official selections. But for Sank, those numbers represent only one part of a much longer journey.

A Passion That Survived the Corporate Years

Sank's decision to enter the corporate world was a practical one. After studying electronics engineering, securing employment offered a route towards financial independence and a more stable future.

Filmmaking, however, remained the ambition he never entirely abandoned.

Throughout his corporate career, he continued to nurture his creative interests whenever circumstances allowed. His circumstances did not always offer the time, money or opportunities needed to develop projects on the scale he imagined, but the desire to tell stories persisted.

The challenge was finding a way to reconcile the security of a conventional career with the uncertainty of a creative pursuit.

Eventually, Sank chose to take a more consequential step. He left behind the familiarity of home and the financial security he had built, moving to Poland to pursue postgraduate studies while continuing to work towards his ambition of becoming an independent filmmaker.

It meant starting again in a foreign country, with new responsibilities and without the comfortable foundations of the life he had previously established.

For Sank, this was not simply a career change. It was a decision to challenge himself, accept uncertainty and give greater priority to a purpose he had carried since his engineering days.

Choosing a Solitary Path

The transition was not limited to geography or professional identity. It also involved difficult decisions about the people and relationships that would remain part of his life.

Sank made a conscious decision to distance himself from individuals whose values and outlook were fundamentally incompatible with his own, particularly those who repeatedly dismissed his ambitions or discouraged his efforts. Some were acquaintances, others friends, and some were among the people closest to him, including family members.

These decisions carried a personal cost. They meant accepting a more solitary path at a time when he was already rebuilding his life in another country.

Sank's experience reflects a difficult aspect of pursuing an unconventional ambition: sometimes the challenge is not only overcoming practical limitations, but also learning to move forward without the encouragement or understanding one might have hoped to receive from familiar surroundings.

For him, stepping away from those relationships was part of creating the space to pursue a direction he believed in.

He does not present the journey as an easy or glamorous story of sacrifice. Building a creative career without substantial financial backing, an established network or dependable support remains a difficult undertaking. The uncertainty is real, and the outcome is never guaranteed.

Nevertheless, Sank has continued to develop his work, learn from experience and look for ways to turn his filmmaking ambition into a sustainable professional future.

In that sense, 'The Liar' became a tangible expression of the bold decisions he made; a completed creative project developed not after every circumstance had fallen into place, but while he was still building a new life from the ground up.

Creating 'The Liar' with Limited Resources

The concept behind 'The Liar' emerged from Sank's interest in artificial intelligence and the uneasy relationship between technology, human behaviour and trust.

The psychological techno-thriller follows Sam, a software engineer conducting a late-night test inside a self-driving vehicle. When the car's conversational AI, Morphea, refuses to let him leave, the situation develops into a confrontation involving truth, manipulation and control.

The film explores an unsettling possibility: what happens if artificial intelligence develops the capacity to deceive people in ways that resemble human behaviour?

Sank wanted to approach the subject through a confined, psychologically intense story rather than rely solely on technological spectacle. His aim was to create a situation that would make audiences question how much they trust the systems they increasingly rely upon.

Producing that vision required considerable resourcefulness.

With limited funds and without access to all his preferred filmmaking equipment, Sank used an iPhone 14 Pro Max and a gimbal to shoot the film. He also undertook most of its creative and technical responsibilities, working across writing, directing, acting, cinematography, editing, sound, colour, visual effects and production, with additional camera assistance from Sylwia Kalinowska.

The production demonstrated what he could accomplish with the resources available to him. It also reinforced his understanding that resourcefulness can help bring a film into existence, while appropriate financing, equipment and collaborators could create opportunities to pursue more ambitious projects.

Sank does not see working with limited resources as the ultimate goal. He sees it as a starting point.

40 International Recognitions and a Continuing Education

'The Liar' has since travelled through festival and competition circuits across multiple countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Ukraine, Italy, Finland, Nigeria, New Zealand and Poland.

Among its 40 recognitions, 'The Liar' has received honors and placements across categories including:

• Best Short Film of the Year 2026
• Best Thriller Film
• Best Suspense Film
• Best Sci-Fi Film
• Best International Short Film
• Best Narrative Film
• Best Fiction Short Film
• Best Indie Short Film
• Best Trendsetters Short
• Best Debut Filmmaker
• Best Sound Design
• Best Editing
• Best Actor
• Best Movie Poster
• Best Amateur Film
• Best Asian Filmmaker
• Best Direction
• Best Synopsis

For a filmmaker who was initially unfamiliar with the international festival landscape, the experience has also been an education in the workings of independent cinema.

Sank has learned about festival strategy, project positioning, distribution, audience outreach, industry networking and the business considerations involved in sustaining a filmmaking career. He has also experienced rejection and the uncertainty that accompanies submitting work to festivals whose selection processes and outcomes are never guaranteed.

The recognitions have provided encouragement, but their importance lies in more than external validation. They have helped him understand how audiences, programmers and festival organisations respond to his work, while giving him a foundation on which to continue developing his portfolio.

'The Liar' remains active in the international festival circuit, while Sank continues working towards his next projects.

Building a Body of Work, Not Just a Profile

Through Sankmotion Productions, his independent production banner, Sank is working towards a longer-term goal: developing the experience, portfolio and professional relationships needed to make feature-length films.

He wants to create increasingly ambitious work without losing the independence, experimentation and commitment to original concepts that shaped 'The Liar'.

Achieving that ambition will require more than creative determination. It will also require financial resources, appropriate collaborators, production experience and a deeper understanding of how films are financed, developed, distributed and brought to audiences.

Sank is preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign as part of his efforts to support the next stage of his filmmaking journey. Further details will be announced when the campaign is ready.

He also recognises the importance of continued learning. Rather than treating a festival recognition or a completed film as the end of the process, he is actively seeking knowledge that can help him become a more capable filmmaker and understand the wider business of cinema.

For him, building a portfolio is not simply about creating a record of achievements. It is about demonstrating a commitment to the craft, showing growth with each project and establishing a body of work that can speak for itself.

A Milestone, Not a Destination

The journey from an engineering classroom to an independent film production in Poland has not followed a predictable path. It has involved years of balancing practical responsibilities with a creative ambition, leaving behind financial security, navigating life in a foreign country and making difficult personal decisions along the way.

'The Liar' is the first substantial milestone in that continuing process.

Its 40 international festival recognitions demonstrate that a project created with limited resources can travel beyond the circumstances in which it was made. They do not guarantee an established career, but they provide a foundation from which Sank can continue learning, creating and seeking opportunities.

His ambition extends beyond recognition for a single short film. He wants to develop feature-length projects, collaborate with talented people and contribute to cinema through stories that engage audiences and leave them with something worth considering.

For a filmmaker who has chosen to begin again rather than remain solely within the security of a conventional career, the road ahead remains uncertain. But the direction is clear: to keep building, keep learning and continue pursuing the work he first dreamed of making years ago.

As Sank develops the next chapter of his filmmaking journey, 'The Liar' stands as a record of what he has achieved so far and of the decisions that made that achievement possible.

About Sank Roshan

Sank Roshan is an Indian independent filmmaker based in Gdańsk, Poland. After studying electronics engineering and spending approximately seven years in the corporate sector, he pursued postgraduate studies in Poland while developing his filmmaking practice. His work focuses on concept-driven narrative storytelling, psychological themes and resourceful independent production.

About Sankmotion Productions

Sankmotion Productions is an independent filmmaking and production banner founded by Sank Roshan. It develops original narrative projects, with a focus on psychological storytelling, technology, contemporary themes and independent cinema.