An 8-minute standing ovation as Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Can Imagine As Light’ wins Grand Prix at Cannes 2024

Filmmaker Payal Kapadia made history on Saturday by winning the Grand Prix award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for her mesmerizing drama “All We Imagine as Light.” This award is the second-most prestigious prize at the festival, following the Palme d’Or, and was presented during the closing ceremony of the 77th edition.

Kapadia’s feature directorial debut, which screened on Thursday night, has received widespread acclaim from international critics. The film is notable for being the first Indian film in 30 years to compete in the main competition and the first ever by an Indian female director. The screening was met with an eight-minute standing ovation from the audience.

“All We Imagine as Light,” a Malayalam-Hindi feature, follows Prabha, a nurse whose life is upended by an unexpected gift from her long-estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, struggles to find a private space to be with her boyfriend in the bustling city. The plot takes a turn when the two nurses embark on a road trip to a beach town, where a mystical forest becomes a canvas for their dreams to unfold.

Payal Kapadia, an alumna of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), is renowned for her documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing,” which won the Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight.

Also Read: Cannes 2024: Here’s all about ‘All We Imagine As Light’, India’s Palme d’Or contender after a long while

Her short film “Afternoon Clouds” was also featured in the Cannes Cinefondation category, which supports emerging filmmakers.

“All We Imagine as Light” is an Indo-French co-production between Petit Chaos from France and Chalk and Cheese Films from India.

The main competition jury at Cannes this year was chaired by filmmaker Greta Gerwig and included notable figures such as Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, Turkish actor-screenwriter Ebru Ceylan, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, American actor Lily Gladstone, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, Lebanese actor-director Nadine Labaki, and French stars Eva Green and Omar Sy.