Indian cinema to compete at Cannes after 30 years; Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine As Light' selected for Competition section

PARIS: After a long gap of 30 years, a film from India will compete for the Palme d'Or award for best film at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Malayalam-Hindi bilingual film 'All We Imagine As Light', directed by Payal Kapadia, has been selected for the prestigious Competition section of the film festival. Malayalam actors Divya Prabha and Kani Kusruti played the central characters of the film. 'Swam', directed by Shaji N Karun, was the last Indian film to enter the competition category in 1994.

'All We Imagine As Light' is about the crises and changes in the lives of Malayali nurses who come to work in Mumbai. Mumbai native Payal Kapadia is a filmmaker who gained international attention through her documentary films. Her documentary 'A Night of Knowing Nothing' had won the 'Golden Eye' award for Best Documentary at Cannes in 2021. In 2017, Payal's film 'Afternoon Clouds' was also selected for Cannes.

Payal's film will be competing with Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' and Paul Schrader's 'Oh, Canada'. The 77th Cannes Film Festival will run from May 14 to May 25.