Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’ Starring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha Wins Cannes’ Grand Prix

‘All We Imagine As Light’ directed by Indian Payal Kapadia won the Grand Prix at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2024. The second-most prestigious award in the Cannes Films Festival, which is among to three European film festivals, after the Palme d”Or. This year, Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ won the Palme d’Or.

Cannes’ Grand Prix is awarded by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. This year’s jury was chaired by American director, screenwriter and actress Greta Gerwig, with Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, American actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, Lebanese director and screenwriter Nadine Labaki, Spanish director and screenwriter Juan Antonio Bayona, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu and French actor and producer Omar Sy as members.

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez was awarded the Jury prize while Miguel Gomes of Grand Tour took home the best director. Mohammad Rasoulof won special award for The Seed Of The Sacred Fig while Jesse Plemons was chosen as best actor for the performance in Kinds Of Kindness

Emilia Pérez’s Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez was awarded best actresses in a group.

“We have been transported and moved by formal aspects that reminded us of classical structures but we also discovered unexpected elements. We talked a lot throughout the festival. In the final discussions, we continued to dance together,” Greta Gerwig, director of Barbie, said about the movies competed in the festival.

Lily Gladstone said she was really lucky to find herself with the group of artists where there was a lot of respect even when there were disagreements. “I became a better spectator. We found a balance in our choices. We kept in mind everyone’s opinions. There was cooperation between us all,” she added.

“Separating them would have broken the magic of what they had managed to create. It’s something we wanted to highlight,” Ms Gerwig said on a group winning the best actress award.

Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prix for her first feature ‘All We Imagine As Light’, is a La Cinef and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune alumna, and her film is about Anu and Prabha, two Mumbai nurses mired in day-to-day existence governed by their work, and a host of unique relationships.

Payal Kapadia was also the writer of the movie while Ranabir Das did the cinematography.

Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon and Azees Nedumangad did major roles in ‘All We Imagine As Light’.