Payal Kapadia Makes History at Cannes with Grand Prix Win

Filmmaker Payal Kapadia's first film as a writer and director, 'All We Imagine as Light' had its world premiere in the main competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix, making Payal Kapadia the first female film director to win this prestigious award at Cannes. The audience gave an eight-minute standing ovation at the world premiere of this film.

Not only this, Payal became the first Indian filmmaker to enter the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival in more than 30 years and the first Indian female film director to be selected for this competition.

'All We Imagine as Light' was one of the 22 films competing for the Palme d'Or award along with high-profile filmmakers like Andrea Arnold, Francis Ford Coppola, Jia Zhangke, Paolo Sorrentino, Sean Baker, and Ali Abbasi.

Payal Kapadia on winning Grand Prix at 77^th Cannes

Overwhelmed while receiving the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Festival, award-winning filmmaker Payal Kapadia said, “Thank you so much to the Cannes Film Festival for bringing our film here. Please don’t wait 30 years for another Indian film. Thank you so much to my producers Thomas, Julian, Ranbir, and Zico who supported the idea, and to my entire crew, many of whom are here and those who couldn’t make it but are hopefully watching from home, this wouldn’t have been possible without them. And thank you to all our partners who have come aboard the film and are going to watch its journey from now on, which I think is very important for a film like this, thank you!”

She further added, “The film is about friendship between three very different women, and at times women are pitted against each other, but for me, friendship is a very important relationship because it can lead to more solidarity, inclusiveness, and empathy towards each other.” Starring Kani Kusruthi, Divya Prabha, Chaaya Kadam, Hrudyu Haroon, and Azees Nedumangad, the Malayalam Hindi feature, ‘All We Imagine As Light’ is the story of nurse Prabha, whose routine gets disturbed when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a place in the city to get intimate with her lover. A trip to the seaside town gives them space to reveal their desires.

The film is an Indo-French co-production between Petit Chaos of France and Chalk & Cheese Films of India. The other co-producers are Arte France Cinéma, Balder Film, Another Birth, Les Films Fauves, and Palpa Film.

Thomas Hakim and Julian Graff are the producers of Petit Chaos. The Indian producers are Jiko Maitra (Chalk & Cheese) and Ranbir Das (Another Birth) who is also the cinematographer of the film.

Earlier Payal Kapadia’s acclaimed debut feature doc ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ premiered at the Cannes Film Festival sidebar Directors Fortnight 2021, winning the Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) award for best documentary film and has since traveled around the world.

‘Afternoon Clouds’ was part of the Cinéfondation section at the 2017 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which also takes place during the festival along with Critics’ Week and Directors Fortnight.

-Shantiswarup Tripathi