In a historic win for India, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light bagged the Grand Prix, the second-highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, on Saturday night.
The film, the story of two Kerala nurses living in contemporary Mumbai, was the first Indian film in 30 years to compete in the main competition at Cannes. It stars Indian actors Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam.
The jury for the 77th Cannes was presided over by Barbie director Greta Gerwig and included the illustrious likes of Lily Gladstone, Hirokazu Koreeda, Eva Green, Omar Sy, Ebru Ceylan and others.
American director Sean Baker’s Anora won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes.
The slate included Francis Ford Coppola’s Megapolis, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness, Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Jia Zhang-Ke’s Caught By the Tides amongst others.
The only Indian film to ever win the Palme d’Or — then known as Grand Prix du Festival International du Film — is Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946). Mrinal Sen’s domestic help drama Kharij won the Jury Prize in 1983.
“Please don’t wait another 30 years to have an Indian film,” Kapadia said while accepting the honour.
In 1994, Malayalam director Shaji N Karun’s rural-set classic Swaham was the last film from India to compete for the Palme d’Or.
Kapadia, an alumnus of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), 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.
