All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix Award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, which is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d’Or, during the closing ceremony of the 77th edition.
Published Nov 06, 2024 | 4:01 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 06, 2024 | 4:01 PM
'All We Imagine As Light' filmmaker Payal Kapadia. (Supplied)
The Grand Prix Award winner at the Cannes Film Festival All We Imagine As Light is set to be released country-wide in India on 22 November.
As part of the promotions, the film team including director Payal Kapadia, and actor Kani Kusruti were present at the premiere of the film in Kochi on Tuesday, 6 November.
Interacting with the press, Payal said, that the Grand Prix award was the sole reason for her movie to be released, adding that she is however happy that the film is finally releasing on 22 November.
An Indo-French co-production between Petit Chaos from France and Chalk and Cheese Films from India, All We Imagine As Light was released in theatres across France on 2 October.
Payal Kapadia’s film speaks about the lives of three working-class women from Kerala, working in Mumbai.
All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix Award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, which is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d’Or, during the closing ceremony of the 77th edition.
It was the second Indian movie in 30 years after Shaji N Karun’s Swaham (1994) to feature in the Cannes Film Festival’s main section.
When asked about the solution for the release of non-mainstream films, she said that she doesn’t know any solution, “There should be a crossover between mainstream and independent films and the industry must support all forms of cinema. Industry must consider cinema as one.” Payal added that, at least in Kerala there is hope that such films are screened.
Speaking of the characters in All We Imagine As Light, Payal said that she took a character from Ratnagiri as at least one person in that coastal Maharstra would be working in Mumbai.
The movie is distributed by Spirit Media owned by Rana Daggubati. All We Imagined As Light was released briefly in Kerala on 21 September, and received great reviews.
Actor Kani Kusruti who garnered huge praise for her role in the film said that she has been getting an overwhelming response for the movie even though she hasn’t visited all the film festivals where the movie was screened.
She also said that every day, she gets messages from the audience saying that they liked the movie.
Kani Kusruti further stressed that there is nothing like a regional feeling (for the movie) and it has received universal acceptance.
Kani also said that she was entirely different from the character Prabha played by her in the movie. According to her, she would always ask Payal why is Prabha behaving like this.
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula, with inputs from Arjun Ramachandran)
