'Thank you Cannes Film Festival for premiering our film here. Please don't make us wait for the next 30 years for another Indian film.' Saying this on the stage of the 77th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia won the second most prestigious award of the festival. Payal's film 'All We Imagine as Light' was awarded the Grand Prix Award here. With this, Payal has become the first Indian filmmaker to win this award.
The film was premiered on May 23 under the Palme d'Or, Cannes' most prestigious category. This was the first Indian film to be selected in this category after 30 years. Earlier in 1994, the film ‘Swaham’ was nominated in this category. Earlier, when Payal Kapadia was studying at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, in 2017, her short film 'Afternoon Clouds' was the only Indian film to be selected in the Cinefondation segment of the 70th Cannes Film Festival.After this, in 2021, his documentary 'A Night of Knowing Nothing' was selected in the Directors' Fortnight category of the Cannes Film Festival. Not only this, the film also received the Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary.
India won 4 awards
The 77th Cannes Film Festival was a great event for India. On one hand, Indian Film and Television Institute FTIIPune's Chidanand S Nayak's Kannada film 'Sunflowers: Where the First Ones to Know' received the Best Film award in the 'Le Cinefon' Cinefondation segment, while Mansi Maheshwari's animated film 'Bunnyhood' got the third prize in the same segment.