Indian Filmmaker's 'All We Imagine As Light' Wins Grand Prix At Cannes

Filmmaker Payal Kapadia on Saturday scripted history as her spellbinding drama "All We Imagine as Light" won the Grand Prix award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

The film bagged the award, which is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or, during the closing ceremony of the 77th edition.

Ms Kapadia's feature directorial debut, which screened on Thursday night and has received glowing reviews in the international press, already registered its name in the history books after it became the first Indian film in 30 years and the first ever by an Indian female director to be showcased in the main competition.

The screening of the film received an eight-minute standing ovation from the audience members. "All We Imagine as Light", a Malayalam-Hindi feature, is about Prabha, a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her long-estranged husband that throws her life into disarray. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a private spot in the big city to be alone with her boyfriend.

One day the two nurses go on a road trip to a beach town where the mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest, according to the plotline.

International critics have given the film a thumbs up and praised 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 where it won the Oeil d'or (Golden Eye) award.

Her short film "Afternoon Clouds" 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 was chaired by filmmaker Greta Gerwig and also 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 French actor Omar Sy.

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