After a long wait of three decades, an Indian film is set to feature in the top competition slot at the forthcoming Cannes Film Festival: "All We Imagine As Light," directed by Payal Kapadia. The announcement was made during a press conference in Paris by Iris Knobloch, the festival's president, and Thierry Fremaux, its general delegate.
Interestingly, Kapadia is one of the four female directors in the competition. The number was seven last year.
Kapadia is no stranger to the prestigious festival on the French Riviera, famously dubbed the "playground for the rich and famous." In 2021, her film "A Night of Not Knowing Nothing" secured the Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary, featured in the Director’s Fortnight, a significant sidebar at Cannes.
The narrative of "All We Imagine As Light" revolves around campus turmoil, conveyed through letters exchanged between a student and her lover. In 2017, Kapadia's "Afternoon Clouds" was showcased in the Cinefondation section, held concurrently with the Festival's Critics' Week and Director’s Fortnight.
At 30 years old, Kapadia will be vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or alongside esteemed figures in global cinema such as Francis Ford Coppola ("Megalopolis"), Sean Baker ("Anora"), Yórgos Lánthimos ("Kinds Of Kindness"), David Cronenberg ("The Shrouds"), Andrea Arnold ("Bird"), Paul Schrader ("Oh Canada"), Jacques Audiard ("Emilia Perez"), and Paulo Sorrentino ("Parthenope"), among others.
