Aadi Bhandari is an MA student in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of British Columbia. His SSHRC-funded research, “Cinema as Gate: Arrival as Duration,” examines how cinema’s formal thresholds convert spatial borders into durational time, theorizing the screen as a ‘gate’ through which viewers can temporarily apprehend the permanent liminality of migrant existence. He holds a BA Honours in Cinema Studies from UBC, where his research-creation thesis, “The Stratigraphic Turn: Vertical Historiography in Vertical Remains,” probed cinema’s potential as a historiographic form. His work draws together film history, world history, race, and environmental aesthetics, alongside interests in film restoration and conservation.

Aadi is also a recipient of the Mark Harris Memorial Scholarship in Film Studies, the R. E. McKechnie Graduate Scholarship, and the BPOC Graduate Excellence Award. He has presented at Endnotes: Environment, Extraction, Evolution (2026), the Breaking the Machine Symposium (2026), and the UBC Asian Studies Graduate Symposium (2025). His scholarly approach is informed by his practice as an experimental filmmaker, with short films, visual essays, and installation works exhibited in academic and festival settings. Most recently, his short film Vertical Remains premiered in competition for the Silver Lynx at FEST (2026) in Portugal.