Cannes Film Festival 2024: Malayalam-Hindi film 'All We Imagine As Light' becomes first Indian feature to win Grand Prix
Kapadia and the film’s cast members Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon, were beaming with energy and did a little dance as they posed for the shutterbugs at
All We Imagine As Light” won the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival (Instagram/@festivaldecannes)
CANNES: Filmmaker Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine As Light" has won the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It's the second biggest prize after the Palme d'Or. The film was a favourite contendor for the top prize.
The Grand Prix was announced during the awards ceremony on the last day of the 77th edition of the festival, on May 25.
Kapadia’s feature directorial debut, which was screened at the festival on Thursday night, received glowing reviews in the international press. It is the first Indian film in 30 years and first ever by an Indian female director to be screened in the main competition of the prestigious film gala.
Kapadia and the film’s cast members Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon, were beaming with energy and did a little dance as they posed for the shutterbugs at the Cannes red carpet. They were accompanied by cinematographer Ranabir Das, and producers Julien Graff, Zico Maitra, Thomas Hakim.
The scene inside the Grand Theatre Lumiere, where the film had its premiere, echoed the mood outside as Payal and her team received an overwhelming welcome from the audience members.
The historic screening culminated with an eight-minute standing ovation for the film.
At the film gala, “All We Imagine as Light”, also written by Kapadia, had competed for the Palme d’Or alongside 19 other highly anticipated titles, including films from master directors like Francis Ford Coppola (“Megalopolis”) and Yorgos Lanthimos (“Kinds of Kindness”), Paul Schrader (“Oh, Canada”), David Cronenberg (“The Shrouds”) and Andrea Arnold (“Bird”).
The last Indian movie to be selected for the main competition was Shaji N Karun’s 1994 movie “Swaham”.
“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 Kapadia’s storytelling prowess.
In his review, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film “glorious”, highlighting its “freshness and emotional clarity” as well as “enriching humanity and gentleness”, while also comparing the movie to Satyajit Ray’s “The Big City” (Mahanagar)and “Days and Nights of the Forest” (Aranyer Din Ratri).
Praising the movie as “a light for audiences to surrender to, a realist-infused story”, Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International said Kapadia’s storytelling had all the elements of international giants like Lucrecia Martel or Alice Rohrwacher and Wong Kar-wai.
Indiewire’s Sophie Monks Kaufman hailed the movie as a “sensual triumph”. “This casual everyday vignette is brimming with a sensuality (the rain, the clothes, the food, the women) that people don’t tend to notice when caught up in the rhythm of life,” she wrote.
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An alumna of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), 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” was a 2017 selection for the Cannes Cinefondation, a category dedicated to supporting 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 Cannes Film Festival commenced on May 14. Greta Gerwig was the jury president this year, along with Lily Gladstone, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Eva Green, Ebru Ceylan, Juan Antonio Bayona, Nadine Labaki and Omar Sy.
Anasuya Sengupta wins Un Certain Regard best actress trophy at 2024 Cannes
Meanwhile, Anasuya Sengupta, one of the lead stars of Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s Hindi-language movie “The Shameless”, created history by bagging the Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes on May 24.
Sengupta, who hails from Kolkata, is the first Indian artiste to win the category’s top acting honour, marking a significant milestone for India at the prestigious film gala.
In her acceptance speech on Friday night, Sengupta dedicated the award to the “queer community and other marginalised communities” for bravely fighting for their rights all over the world.
(With online desk inputs)