• It was a triple feat for Indian talent at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

• Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’, FTII student Chidananda S. Naik’s ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’, and Anasuya Sengupta of ‘The Shameless’ fame won major awards in each of the three competitive sections at Cannes 2024.

• Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’, set in Brooklyn, won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award — the Palme d’Or.

Cannes Film Festival

• The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious events in the world of cinema. 

• It takes place for two weeks in May every year, in the town of Cannes in France.

• The first edition of the film festival was held in 1946.

• The films selected for the official competition are screened before a jury composed of famous names from the world of cinema. The jury awards prizes in various categories, including the Palme d’Or, the Grand Prize, the Jury Prize and the Best Director Prize.

Grand Prix award for ‘All We Imagine as Light’

• Payal Kapadia, an alumna of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), charted history by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix award for ‘All We Imagine as Light’.

• ‘All We Imagine as Light’, a Malayalam-Hindi feature, is about Prabha, a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her long estranged husband that throws her life into disarray. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a private spot in the big city to be alone with her boyfriend.

One day the two nurses go on a road trip to a beach town where the mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest.

• The Grand Prix Award is the second most prestigious award at the festival after the Palme d’Or.

• Since 1995, the official name of the award has been the Grand Prix. Earlier, it has had two other names since its creation in 1967: Grand Prix Special du Jury (1967-1988), and Grand Prix du Jury (1989-1994).

• The award should not be confused with the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, which was the previous name of the Palme d’Or — the top prize at Cannes.

• The movie, Kapadia’s feature directorial debut, is the first Indian film in 30 years and first ever by an Indian female director to be showcased in main competition, last being Shaji N Karun’s ‘Swaham’ (1994).

• Kapadia had won the Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) award at Cannes for acclaimed documentary ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ which premiered under Director’s Fortnight section in 2021.

• Her 2017 short film ‘Afternoon Clouds’ opened at Cannes under Cinefondation category, dedicated to supporting the next generation of talented filmmakers.

Other big wins for India

• Chidananda S. Naik’s ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’, which won the La Cinef first prize (film school fiction or animated films), was another feather in FTII’s cap.

• Based on a Kannada folktale, the movie follows an old woman who steals a rooster following which the sun stops rising in the village. To bring the rooster back, a prophecy is invoked, sending the old lady’s family into exile.

• Anasuya Sengupta, a production designer who played a pivotal onscreen role in Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s Un Certain Regard title ‘The Shameless’, made history. She became the first ever Indian to win the best actress prize in Cannes.

• ‘The Shameless’ explores a dark world of exploitation and misery in which two sex workers forge a bond.

• Veteran cinematographer Santosh Sivan,  known for his extensive work behind the camera in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi cinema, was honoured with the Pierre Angenieux ExcelLens in Cinematography award. 

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