Winner Eye Prize 2025 | Sohrab Hura

Sohrab Hura was selected by an international jury and is awarded a sum of € 30,000 and a (joint) presentation at Eye Filmmuseum. Supported by Ammodo, the prize enables the winner to develop new work.

In Hura’s creations, the personal often goes hand in hand with a critical view of society. His projects range from an intimate and vulnerable account of life with his ill mother to raw and absurd portrayals of violence and disinformation. He also sheds light on tensions and fault lines in Indian society, as in his poetic photo reportage of life in the divided region of Kashmir.

Hura’s work is remarkably versatile – both in subject and medium. He describes his oeuvre as a tree whose branches reach toward the light, while the roots intertwine with those of other trees in a larger underground network. His films, books, photographic works, drawings and paintings thus form an interconnected whole

In the words of the jury:

“What makes Hura so intriguing is that he does not confine himself to a single discipline. He moves effortlessly between still and moving images, between cinematic rhythms and photo collages. His creations exist somewhere between essay and encounter, between documentary and dream. In doing so, he sharply and at times poetically reveals the contradictions and surreal nature of contemporary life – particularly in the context of South Asia – while at the same time building a visual language that resonates across the world.

Sohrab Hura is a leading artist who demonstrates how hybrid media facilitate new forms of storytelling. His work explores uncharted territories and redefines what it means to share stories in a time of fragmentation and uncertainty. It is for precisely this reason that the jury expresses its deep appreciation for him.”

Biography of Sohrab Hura

Sohrab Hura (1981) lives and works in New Delhi, India. He started taking photographs at the age of twenty-one to cope with his mother’s illness. His early work was documentary in nature and highlighted themes such as livelihood security in rural India. Today, his work is a varied interplay of film, drawings, photography, sound and text. Many of his works seek to grasp a world in constant flux and Hura’s own place within it.

Hura has recently had solo and group exhibitions in, among others, MoMA PS1 in New York (2025), Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town (2022) and Huis Marseille in Amsterdam (2021). His film The Coast (2020) premiered at the Berlinale in 2021. At the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in 2020 he won the main prize from the Internationale Jury for his film Bittersweet (2019), and in 2018 he won the NRW Award for his film The Lost Head & The Bird (2017). The latter film also won the Videonale Award of the Fluentum Collection in 2019.

Hura’s work is held in the permanent collections of the MoMA in New York, the Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in India, and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Hura is a member of Magnum Photos.

Eye Art & Film Prize

The Eye Prize has been awarded annually since 2015 to an artist or filmmaker who is building an exceptional body of work and contributes in an extraordinary way to new developments at the intersection of visual art and film. The prize consists of a sum of €30,000 intended for the creation of new work. Since 2023, the Eye Prize has been supported by Ammodo.

Jury & advisory board

Sohrab Hura was chosen as winner by an international jury, chaired by Eye director Bregtje van der Haak. This year’s jury consisted of Leonardo Bigazzi (curator Fondazione In Between Art Film), Nanouk Leopold (filmmaker, theatre director, artist), Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (filmmaker/artist), Hila Peleg (curator/filmmaker) and Chris Dercon (managing director of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain).