Filmmaker Payal Kapadia made history as her drama “All We Imagine as Light” won the prestigious Grand Prix award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The film, celebrated as the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d’Or, was honored during the closing ceremony of the 77th edition.
Ms. Kapadia’s feature directorial debut, which premiered on Thursday night to critical acclaim, has already secured its place in history as the first Indian film in 30 years, and the first ever by an Indian female director, to be showcased in the main competition. The film’s screening received an eight-minute standing ovation from the audience.
“All We Imagine as Light,” a Malayalam-Hindi feature, tells the story of Prabha, a nurse whose life is upended by an unexpected gift from her long-estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, struggles to find a private spot in the bustling city to be alone with her boyfriend. The plot takes the two nurses on a road trip to a beach town, where a mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest.
International critics have lauded the film and Ms. Kapadia’s storytelling prowess. An alumna of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Ms. Kapadia is best known for her acclaimed documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing,” which premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight side-bar and won the Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) award.
Her short film “Afternoon Clouds” was featured in Cinefondation, a category dedicated to supporting the next generation of talented filmmakers. “All We Imagine as Light” is an Indo-French co-production between Petit Chaos from France and Chalk and Cheese Films from India.
The main competition jury, chaired by filmmaker Greta Gerwig, included Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, Turkish actor-screenwriter Ebru Ceylan, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, American actor Lily Gladstone, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, Lebanese actor-director Nadine Labaki, and French stars Eva Green and Omar Sy.
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