Cannes 2024: Payal Kapadia's 'All That We Imagine As Light' wins jury prize

In 30 years Payal Kapadias All That We Imagine As Light became the first Indian film to be selected for Palme dOr the main competition at Cannes 2024 Film Festival After its screening on Thursday at the French Riviera it became one of the lead contenders for Palme dOr While the film has not bagged the award it has received the jury prize or the Grand Prix making it the first Indian film ever to win the title Anora which was in competition won the Palme dOrPayal Kapadia accepted the award from the jury on the closing night of the prestigious film festival She also invited on stage her lead castKani Kusruti Chayya Kadam and Divya Prabha while accepting the award and thanked them It really takes a village said Kapadia while thanking her team behind the filmLe Grand Prix est attribueacute agrave ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT de PAYAL KAPADIA The Jury Prize goes to ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT by PAYAL KAPADIACannes2024 Palmares Awards GrandPrix pictwittercomEw5SfmFmvZmdash Festival de Cannes Festival_Cannes May 25 2024This film is about the friendship between three different women and often times women are pitted against each other This is the way our society is designed and it is really unfortunate But for me friendship is an important relationship It can lead to greater solidarity and inclusivity and empathy towards each other which is why I feel these are the values which we should always strive for Payal said in her acceptance speech receiving a thunderous applauseAll We Imagine is the first Indian movie in 30 years to qualify for the festivals competition section which makes Kapadia a contender for the prestigious Palme dOr The eightminute standing ovation at the end of the films screening was definitely among the longest of this edition of the film festivalThe team of the film including Chhaya Kadam Hridhu Haroon Kani Kusruti Payal Kapadia Divya Prabha Ranabir Das Julien Graff Zico Maitra and Thomas Hakim walked the red carpet in stunning outfits However it was the team dancing and enjoying their big moment that won heartsKapadia was in competition with European heavyweights such as Jacques Audiard and Yorgos Lanthimos American auteurs David Cronenberg and Paul Schrader and Asian visionary Jia Zhangke as IndieWire reminds usThe film did leave international critics impressed after the screening with Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian showering praise on it for its freshness and emotional clarity and comparing Kapadias fluent and absorbing storytelling with Satyajit Rays in his classics Mahanagar and Aranyer Din RatriBefore the screening the internationally funded films star cast adorned the red carpet on the steps of the Palais du Festival with KThe early reviews to pour in after the screening were glowing In her review of the gorgeous and absorbing film Sophie MonkKaufman of IndieWire wrote This casual everyday vignette is brimming with a sensuality the rain the clothes the food the women that people dont tend to notice when caught up in the rhythm of life It takes a snapshot from a photographer removed from the situation to make you realise how full these moments areIn the words of Fionnuala Halligan This fiction debut from a talented documentarian brings to mind the work of Lucrecia Martel or Alice Rohrwacher yet theres a strong romantic streak that also calls to mind Wong Karwais great love affair with the city of Hong KongAnd Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter could resist comparing the languorous film with the cinema the world now expects from India He commented All We Imagine as Light is about as far as you can get from the stylistics of Bollywoods masala musicals even if there is one short and memorable impromptu dance scene toward the end And yet its story of women looking for love and happiness in a calamitous world brings to mind those popular Mumbaiset movies in which heroines suffer plenty of heartbreak before things eventually work out