Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix at the 77th Festival de Cannes in 2024, making Kapadia the first Indian filmmaker to win that prize. The win was distinct from the Palme d’or, which went to Anora.
What did Payal Kapadia win at Cannes?
The Festival de Cannes named All We Imagine as Light its 2024 Grand Prix winner on 25 May 2024. Kapadia wrote and directed the film, which was selected for the festival’s Official Competition. The Grand Prix and Palme d’or are separate awards: All We Imagine as Light received the Grand Prix, while Anora won the Palme d’or. The festival’s official winners list records both results.
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Why is the win historic?
The milestone is specifically about the Grand Prix: Kapadia became the first Indian filmmaker to win it. Separately, the British Film Institute said the film was the first Indian film selected for Cannes Official Competition in three decades, and that Kapadia was the first female Indian filmmaker to have a film in that section. These are achievements of selection and award recognition, not a claim that she was the first Indian person ever to receive any Cannes award. The BFI’s announcement states the competition-history milestones.
What is All We Imagine as Light about?
The 2024 feature follows two nurses in Mumbai. Prabha’s routine is unsettled by an unexpected gift from her estranged husband, while her younger roommate, Anu, struggles to find privacy with her boyfriend. A trip to a coastal town gives the two women room to pursue their desires, according to the Cannes film page.
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Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha play Prabha and Anu; Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon are also in the cast. Cannes lists the running time as 114 minutes and the production countries as France, India, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
Where does the film sit in Kapadia’s career?
Cannes describes All We Imagine as Light as Kapadia’s first fiction feature. Before it, she directed the documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing, which won the Cannes Golden Eye in 2021. Her short film Afternoon Clouds was selected for the festival’s Cinéfondation section in 2017. Kapadia’s Cannes profile lists that career history.
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In its 2024 editorial account, Cannes discussed the feature through themes of gender, class, and religious inequality in its Mumbai setting. That is the festival’s framing of the film, rather than a substitute for its plot summary. Read Cannes’ feature on the film.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How did the Grand Prix affect the film’s reach?
In a 2025 Festival de Cannes interview, Kapadia said, “Thanks to the Grand Prix, we got a lot of distribution in over 60 countries, including my own country, India.” That figure is her account of the award’s effect on the film’s distribution, not an independently audited total. The interview was published while she was a member of the festival’s feature-film jury.
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