Payal Kapadiya’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’ To Compete In Cannes 2024

Writer-director Payal Kapadia’s debut film ‘All We Imagine As Light’ will compete for the top honours in the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival. This festival is scheduled to be held from May 14 to 25. After 30 years, an Indian movie has been selected to compete in Cannes. The last film that made it to the festival was Shaji N Karun’s Swaham in 1994.

The announcement was made at a press conference on Thursday in Paris by the president of the festival, Iris Knobloch, and the general delegate, Thierry Fremaux. This year will witness the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

The movie is an Indo-French production and is about a nurse named Prabha who receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband that does not make her feel good. While her younger roommate is seeking a quiet space to be with her lover, eventually they both choose to go on a trip to a beachy place where they find space for their dreams. 

However, Payal Kapadiya is not new to the Cannes festival. In 2021, her ‘A Night of Not Knowing Nothing’ won the Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary Playing in the Director’s Fortnight, an important Cannes sidebar.

In 2017, Payal’s ‘Afternoon Clouds’ was a part of the Cinefondation section, which also took place in the festival with the Critics’ Week and Director’s Fortnight. 

A British-Indian filmmaker, Sandhya Suri’s film ‘Santosh’ has also been selected for Un Certain Regard. A few movies have competed in the Cannes Film Festival, including Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946), V Shantaram’s Amar Bhoopali (1952), Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (1953), Satyajit Ray’s Parash Pathar (1958), MS Sathyu’s Garm Hava (1974), and Mrinal Sen’s Kharij (1983). ‘Neecha Nagar’ remains the only Indian film to have won a Palme d’Or.