CFD 25|All we imagine as light

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A Close-up of Contemporary World Cinema
All We Imagine as Light
115', 2024, France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg

In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha’s routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.

Payal Kapadia is a filmmaker based in Mumbai. She studied Film Directing at the Film and Television Institute of India and began her cinematic journey in 2017 with the much-discussed short film Afternoon Clouds, which became the only official selection from India in the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation section. Her experimental short film And What Was The Summer Saying had its world premiere at Berlin International Film Festival in 2018. It went on to receive the Special Jury Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2018, as well as the Pramod Pati Award for Experimental Film at the Mumbai International Film Festival in 2020. Her experimental short film The Last Mango Before Monsoon was first screened at the Oberhausen International Film Festival in 2015, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Special Jury Award. Her debut feature film, All We Imagine As Light, won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival in 2024 and received two Golden Globe nominations.

Directed by Payal Kapadia
Screenplay Payal Kapadia
Cinematography Ranabir Das
Editing Clément Pinteaux
Production design Yashasvi Sabharwal, Piyusha Chalke, Shamim Khan
Music Dhritiman Das
Sound design Σχεδιασμός ήχου Romain Ozanne, Benjamin Silvestre, Olivier Voisin
Cast Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, Azees Nedumangad, Tintumol Joseph, Anand Sami
ProducersThomas Hakim, Julien Graff
Production companyPetit Chaos
Co-production companies Chalk & Cheese, ARTE France Cinema, BALDR Film, Les Films Fauves, Another Birth, Pulpa Films
World sales Luxbox

Filmography
2024 All we imagine as light
2021 A night of knowing nothing
2018 And what is the summer saying? (s.f.)
2017 Afternoon clouds (s.f.)
2015 The last mango before the monsoon (s.f.)

Selected Awards
Nominated for Best Film not in the English Language, BAFTA Film Awards, 2025.
Nominated for Best Motion Picture and Best Director Awards, Golden Globes, USA, 2025.
Grand Prize of the Festival, Cannes Film Festival, France, 2024.
Best Screenplay Award, Silver Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival, USA, 2024.
RTVE Otra Mirada Award, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Spain, 2024.