Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine As Light' receives two Golden Globe nominations

NEW DELHI: Filmmaker Payal Kapadia's "All We Imagine As Light", a Mumbai-set story about three women and their friendship, on Monday received two nominations at the 82nd Golden Globes in Best Motion Picture Non-English Language and the Best Direction - Motion Picture categories.

The film, which scripted history by becoming the first Indian movie to win the Grand Prix award at the Cannes in May, has been registering wins and nominations as Hollywood gears up for its annual awards season that culminates with Oscars.

At the Golden Globes, "All We Imagine As Light" will compete with "Emilia Perez" (France), "The Girl With the Needle" (Poland), "I'm Still Here" (Brazil), "The Seed of the Sacred Fig (US) and the "Vermiglio" (Italy) in the Best Non-English Language Motion Picture category.

In the Best Director category at the 82nd Golden Globes, Kapadia will compete with "The Brutalist" director Brady Corbet, Coralie Fargeat of "The Substance", Edward Berger of "Conclave", "Emilia Perez" director Jacques Audiard and Sean Baker for "Anora".

"I’m deeply honoured by this nomination and grateful to the HFPA for this recognition. This is a celebration of everyone who worked so passionately on the film. To everyone in India, 'All We Imagine as Light' is still in theaters—please go watch it and support us," Kapadia said in a statement.

Kapadia's feature debut has received a lot of international acclaim since it premiered at Cannes where it not only registered the second best award but was also one of the best reviewed movies.

The director, a graduate from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), has previously directed acclaimed short film "Afternoon Clouds" and docu-feature "A Night of Knowing Nothing".

Though the movie was not selected as India's official entry for the Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category, it is expected to fetch nominations at the Oscars in general categories. Kiran Rao's "Laapata Ladies" will represent India in the category.

The movie was named the Best International Film by New York Film Critics Circle and won an award in the same category at the Gotham Awards recently.

"All We Imagine As Light" claimed the top spot at the Sight and Sound magazine's annual list of 50 best movies of the year.

The Malayalam-Hindi feature is being distributed in the US by Janus Films and Sideshow. Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media released the film across India in November.

Starring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam, Kapadia’s film explores love and friendship in the bustling city of Mumbai through three women, two Malayali nurses — Prabha and Anu — and their friend Parvati.

In 2022, SS Rajamouli's "RRR" earned two nominations at the Globes in Best Non-English Language Film and Best Song for "Naatu Naatu". It eventually won in the song category, a win that the film went on to replicate at the Oscars as well.

Shekhar Kapur was nominated in Director category at the 1999 Globes for his Hollywood "Elizabeth" and Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay" (1989) and "Monsoon Wedding" (2002) were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, whose name has now been changed to Best Motion Feature Non-English.

The 2025 Golden Globes will take place on January 5 in Los Angeles. It will stream live in India on Lionsgate Play.