A historic win for the Indian cinema is that Payal Kapadia's ‘All We Imagine as Light' has bagged the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival 2024. Not only does it pinpoint Kapadia's masterful approach to narrative, but it also records a singular victory for Indian cinema: the filmmaker is the first Indian to win the award. The event held on Saturday evening also had American director Sean Baker receiving the Palme d'Or for ‘Anora'.
The film by Kapadia screened on Thursday night was a moving Malayalam-Hindi feature. The movie is centered on a nurse named Prabha whose fate changes after receiving a gift from her cheating husband. Her new neighbor, Anu, has difficulty keeping things private with her boyfriend given that they live in a large urban area. The story begins when two nurses decide to go on an empowering trip to a mythical seaside.
When accepting the award from American actor and director Viola Davis, Kapadia thanked for the award and underlined that the movie is about female friendship. She was speaking during the press conference with the three leading people, Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam.
This is Kapadia's first feature after her highly praised documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing, which had its world premiere at the Directors' Fortnight in 2021 and was awarded the Oeil d'or (Golden Eye) prize. Her short movie “Afternoon Clouds” also made a stir in the Cinefondation category for future directors and screenwriters.
The film was premiered in the Cannes Festival and among other outstanding movies, it received an eight minutes standing ovation and further recognizable critics from various countries saw its chances for the top award as good.
The 2024 Cannes film festival also honored other actors from India. On Thursday, Chidananda S. Naik's film titled “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know…” was awarded the La Cinef first prize and on friday Anasuya Sengupta became the first Indian film actress ever to win the award for the best actress of “The Shameless”.
As the festival came to a close, the focus continued to be placed on the various and strong stories shared during their performances. In “All We Imagine as Light”, Payal Kapadia not only set the path for herself and the movie, but for future Indian filmmakers that are yet to venture in the global arena.
