Payal Kapadia’s ‘All we imagine as light’ shortlisted for Oscars 2025

After scripting history for India at the prestigious Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival 2024, filmmaker Payal Kapadia's movie “All We Imagine as Light” gets shortlisted to represent France at the Oscars 2025.

Kapadia, a Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) alumna, made her directorial debut with this film and brought laurels for the country. Notably, she is the first ever Indian woman director to grace the festival's main competition, and the first Indian to lift the Grand Prix award.

The movie narrates the lives of two Malayali nurses residing in Mumbai. It features Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, Azees Nedumangad, and Tintumol Joseph in pivotal roles.

Talking to NDTV, co-producer Zico Maitra revealed that the makers have also submitted the film for Academy Awards selection in India.

“We have submitted the film for selection in India. As Indian producers, it's been incredible seeing a regional language film resonate so deeply with audiences globally, starting with Cannes and the film being the first Indian film to play in Competition in 30 years," he said, adding that while the film's themes are global, this is a story about Mumbai and the lives of women in that city+India.

"It would be a great honour to represent India at the Academy Awards. We think it could be a source of great joy for India in the way we felt it was after the film won the Grand Prix at Cannes,” Maitra told NDTV.

All We Imagine As Light marked the first Indian film in 30 years, and the first by an Indian female director, to be featured in the main competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, which was screened on May 23, received an eight-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening.

Previously, the Indian film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival was Shaji N Karun's Swaham in 1994.