Cannes 2024: Payal Kapadia Scripts History As All We Imagine As Light Wins Grand Prix

Payal Kapadia made history at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Indian director to win the Grand Prix, the second-most prestigious award after the Palme d’Or. Kapadia's poignant drama, All We Imagine As Light, which premiered on May 23 at the international film festival, bagged the honour on the closing ceremony, held on May 25. The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It, however, missed out on the top honour, which was bagged by Anora by American filmmaker Sean Baker. 

All We Imagine As Light wows Cannes audience

Kapadia’s feature directorial debut, which screened on Thursday night and received glowing reviews in the international press, 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. At the closing ceremony on May 25, as the winners in the main competition were announced, the Indian feature film, set in Mumbai and Ratnagiri, was bestowed with the second most prestigious prize at Cannes by the jury of the festival, headed by Greta Gerwig. 

The film stars Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon. It lost the festival's top prize, Palme d'Or, to Anora by Sean Baker.

All you need to know about All We Imagine As Light 

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. All We Imagine As Light is an Indo-French co-production between petit chaos from France and Chalk and Cheese Films from India. 

(With PTI inputs)