Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light on May 24 won the Grand Prix award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival’s closing ceremony. The award is the second most prestigious prize of the festival, after Palme d’Or. The film, which is Payal’s debut feature directorial venture, already created history when it became the first Indian film in 30 years and the first by an Indian female director to be showcased in the main competition section.
The Malayalam-Hindi film, which was screened on May 23, received an eight-minute standing ovation from the audience. It is an Indo-French co-production between Petit Chaos from France and Chalk & Cheese Films from India. The main competition jury was chaired by filmmaker Greta Gerwig.
Payal Kapadia, an FTII alumna, is best known for her 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.