Director Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” has been chosen as the best film of the year by the prestigious Sight & Sound magazine, which also named “Anora”, “La Chimera”, “Dahomey” and “Hard Truths” among the top films. Selected among five. ,
Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner, voted by the magazine’s contributors, “is about love, but it also takes a clear stance against Islamophobia and other religious, race and class prejudices that disrupt real people’s lives”. .
The magazine said there are more female than male directors in the top ten, a feat that had happened only once before, in the pandemic year of 2020, when seven women were listed. This year the count is six.
Kapadia, in a message to the Sight & Sound team, expressed his happiness over his film being chosen as the Best Film.
“Really surprised. And very grateful too. We used to get a copy of Sight & Sound at our film school, the Film and Television Institute of India. When the new edition came out we were all excited and eager to read it. The director wrote, the magazine and its writers hold a special place in the heart of every cine lover.
The filmmaker said that the first germ of the idea for “All We Imagine as Light” developed in the final year at the institute. She was out of hospitals and when it came to writing her final year diploma film, she set out to explore the subject.
She recalled, “But as I collected more material, I started feeling overwhelmed. The film seemed too difficult. In a hurry I decided to abandon it.”
Kapadia said she returned to the subject of the film a few years later with the approach of taking it one step at a time and a larger structure began to emerge.
He said, “Working on a film is about taking the turmoil out of your mind in the best possible way, and making a film that keeps you up at night.” In some parts of the world, she feels overwhelmed by “how people have embraced it”.
“This is a film made with the love of many collaborators over many years – a handmade film. I can only be grateful and grateful to those who accepted it as their own. And now I am also thankful for accepting it and accepting it as their own I give you mine too,” he wrote.
Other films included in the list include “Don’t Expect Too Much from the End of the World”, “The Brutalist”, “Emilia Perez”, “Perfect Days”, “The Zone of Interest”, “Evil Does Not Exist”. , “I Saw the TV Glow”, “The Substance” and “Caught by the Tides” among others.
“All We Imagine as Light” was recently named Best International Film by the New York Film Critics Circle Award as well as the Gotham Awards.
The Malayalam-Hindi film also won the Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) 2024.
Kapadia’s film was released in Indian theaters on 22 November and received positive reviews. Although it was not chosen by the selection committee in India to represent the country in the Oscar category, many in India are expecting the film to receive recognition at the 2025 Academy Awards in the general categories.
“All We Imagine as Light” is being distributed in the US by Janus Films and Sideshow. Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media released the film across India.
Starring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam, Kapadia’s film explores love, longing and loneliness in the bustling city of Mumbai through three women, two Malayali nurses – Prabha and Anu – and their friend Parvati.
Prabha’s life goes haywire when she receives a rice cooking vessel from her husband who lives in Germany. Anu is struggling to find a private place in the city to stay with her boyfriend. Prabha’s best friend Parvati, a widow, is being thrown out of her house by property developers.
Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan production’s “Lapta Ladies”, a feel-good drama exploring themes of freedom, will represent India at the Oscars in the International Film category.
(This report has been published as part of an auto-generated syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, there have been no edits to the copy by ABP Live.)
