Payal Kapadia made history at Cannes as her film, All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix award at the prestigious film festival. The film was the first Indian movie to compete in the main competition at Cannes in 30 years. The team of the film — director Payal Kapadia, and actors Chhaya Kadam, Divya Prabha and Kani Kusruti were present at the Cannes Film Festival 2024 to accept the award at the film festival’s closing ceremony. In her acceptance speech, Payal made a special request to Cannes.
“I’m very nervous, so I wrote something down. Thank you to the Cannes Film Festival for having our film here. Please don’t wait 30 years to have another Indian film,” Payal said in her acceptance speech. “This film is about friendship between three women and oftentimes women are pitted against each other. This is the way society is designed and it is very unfortunate. But for me friendship is a very important relationship because it can lead to greater solidarity, inclusivity and empathy towards each other,” she added, as reported by The Indian Express.
All We Imagine as Light competed with 21 other films for the title. The films included Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness, Sean Baker’s Anora, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megapolis, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, Jia Zhang-Ke’s Caught By The Tides, Christophe Honore’s Marcello Mia, Miguel Gomes’s Grand Tour, David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds and Michel Hazanavicius’s The Most Precious of Cargoes.
About All We Imagine as Light:
All We Imagine as Light 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.
The other winners of Cannes 2024 are:
Palme d’Or: Anora
Director: Miguel Gomes, Grand Tour
Actor: Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness
Best Actresses: The Ensemble of Emilia Pérez
Jury Prize: Emilia Pérez
Special Award (Prix Spécial): Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
Camera d’Or: Armand, Halfdan Ullman Tondel
Camera d’Or Special Mention: Mongrel, Chiang Wei Liang, You Qiao Yin
Short Film Palme d’Or: The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, Nebojša Slijepčević
Short Film Special Mention: Bad for a Moment, Daniel Soares
Golden Eye Documentary Prize: Ernest Cole: Lost and Found and The Brink of Dreams
Europa Cinemas Label: The Other Way Around, Jonás Trueba
Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: This Life of Mine, Sophie Fillières
Audience Choice Award: Universal Language, Matthew Rankin
Queer Palm: Three Kilometers to the End of the World
FIPRESCI Award (Competition): The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Mohammad Rasoulof
FIPRESCI Award (Un Certain Regard): The Story of Souleymane, Boris Lojkine
FIPRESCI Award (Parallel Sections): Desert of Namibia, Yoko Yamanaka
Un Certain Regard Award: Black Dog, Guan Hu
Jury Prize: The Story of Souleymane, Boris Lojkine
Grand Prize: Simon of the Mountain, Federico Luis
French Touch Prize: Blue Sun Palace, Constance Tsang
GAN Foundation Award for Distribution: Jour2Fête, Julie Keeps Quiet
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Ricardo Teodoro, Baby
Leitz Cine Discovery Prize (short film): Guil Sela, Montsouris Park
Congratulations to all the winners.
(With inputs from PTI)