Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’ is first Indian film in Cannes official selection in 40 years

ndian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light on Thursday made history by becoming the first Indian title in over 40 years to feature in the prestigious ‘Competition Section’ of the Cannes Film Festival, where it will vie for the top prize —Palme d’Or.

Iris Knobloch, president of the Cannes Festival, and Thierry Fremaux, general delegate, announced the official selection line-up for the 2024 edition of the gala at a press conference streamed live from Cannes, France.

Besides Kapadia, British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s Santosh will also be showcased at the 77th edition of the film gala. The movie will be screened under the Un Certain Regard section.

Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light will be presented under the main segment alongside 19 other highly anticipated titles, including films from master directors Francis Ford Coppola (Megalopolis) and Yorgos Lanthimos (Kinds of Kindness).

Oh Canada by Paul Schrader, Bird by Andrea Arnold, The Shrouds by David Cronenberg, and Anora by Sean Baker are also part of the main competition slate.

Kapadia, an alumna 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. All We Imagine As Light, also written by Kapadia, marks her narrative feature debut.

The film is about Prabha, a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband, which 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.

The last Indian film to compete for the coveted Palme d’Or award was legendary filmmaker Mrinal Sen’s Kharij in 1983. Before that, films like MS Sathyu’s Garm Hava (1974), Satyajit Ray’s Parash Pathar (1958), Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (1953), V Shantaram’s Amar Bhoopali (1952) and Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946) were selected for Cannes Competition segment.

Neecha Nagar is the only Indian film ever to win the top honour at Cannes back in 1946. At the time, the award was known as Grand Prix du Festival International du Film.

Suri’s Santosh will compete alongside 14 other movies in the Un Certain Regard, which runs parallel to the main competition.

The Hindi language film, a character-driven neo-noir story set in the hinterlands of North India, is a UK-European co-production and stars Shahana Goswami. Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act will be the opening film at the 77th edition. — PTI

Coppola, Cronenberg to compete

Directors Francis Ford Coppola, David Cronenberg and Yorgos Lanthimos will compete for the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize next month, organisers said on Thursday, easing concerns that strikes in Hollywood might dim the star-studded event. Coppola will bring his long-in-the-making passion project Megalopolis, starring Adam Driver, to the competition, while Lanthimos teams up with Emma Stone after the success of Poor Things with Kinds of Kindness. Cronenberg will pull in horror fans again with The Shrouds, starring Vincent Cassel.

Last year marked a difficult one in Hollywood as strikes by actors and writers forced filming and post-production work to shut down for months, leaving gaps in 2024’s movie schedule.

Other directors unveiling their new films in the competition include Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino with the Naples-set Parthenope, Brazilian Karim Ainouz’s erotic thriller Motel Destino and France’s Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, a musical set in the milieu of a Mexican drug cartel, starring Selena Gomez. The 2024 festival runs from May 14-25. — Reuters

Proud moment

British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s Santosh will also be showcased at the 77th edition of the film gala. The movie will be screened under the Un Certain Regard section.

Neecha Nagar is the only Indian film ever to win the top honour at Cannes back in 1946. At the time, the award was known as Grand Prix du Festival International du Film.

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