India’s performance at 77th Cannes Film Festival has been phenomenal with two filmmakers, an actress and a cinematographer won top awards at the world’s leading film festival. Indian Filmmakers have fetched huge accolades at his years’ Cannes festival in France. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a statement said that for the first time in 30 years an Indian film named ‘All We Imagine as Light’ of Payal Kapadia, which centers around the lives of two nurses, was nominated for the Palme d’or, the highest award in the festival. This film won the Grand Prix, the second position in the category. With this win Payal Kapadia who is alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India becomes the first Indian to bag this prestigious award. Payal’s film was granted official Indo-French co production status by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, under the signed Audio-Visual treaty between India and France.
In addition to it, FTII student Chidananda S Naik bagged the first prize in the La Cinef section for “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ which is a 15-minute short film based on a Kannada folklore.
Besides, the much renowned Cinematographer Santosh Sivan, known for his rich body of work in Indian cinema became the first Asian to be awarded the prestigious Pierre Angénieux Tribute award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Another individual who made history at Cannes is Anasuya Sengupta as she became the first ever Indian to win the Best Actress award for her performance in ‘The Shameless’ in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ category.
The Ministry added that another independent film maker who shines at Cannes was Maisam Ali who is also a FTII alumnus. His film “In Retreat” was screened at the ACID Cannes sidebar programme. FTTI has a special reason for celebrating its accomplishments as its Alumni such as Payal Kapadia, Santosh Sivan, Maisam Ali and Chidanand S Naik shines at Cannes.
