Cannes Opened Doors: Kapadia’s Film Shines Light on Indian Screens

 

Director Payal Kapadia has credited the Cannes Film Festival awards for her feature film debut, All We Imagine As Light, to helping it get distributed in India directly. Director Payal Kapadia reported at the 2025 Cannes opening press conference, "Our film coming here in Cannes and getting the recognition and all of you writing about it really helped us to get the film out.". Even the release there in India was facilitated by that… The only thing you want as a filmmaker is that your film should be watched by the people of your own nation and all others too. So that was an enormous plus point for me".

 

The Malayalam-Hindi film, which follows two Malayali nurses in Mumbai, made history as the first Indian film to win the Cannes Grand Prix. After its Cannes triumph, the film saw a limited Kerala release in September 2024, followed by a nationwide rollout, distributed by Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media.

 

Source: Times of India, CNBC TV18, The Telegraph India