It was a triple feat of Indian talent at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with ‘All We Imagine As Lithe’ by Payal Kapadia, ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ by FTII student Chidananda S Naik and Anasuya Sengupta of ‘The Shameless’ fame . winning the main prizes in each of the three competition sections of the prestigious gala.
Kapadia, an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), created history by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix for ‘Everything We Imagine as Lithe’. The film won an honorable title, the second most prestigious award of the gala after the Palme d’Or, which was awarded to American director Sean Baker for “Anora”. Kapadia’s film, which is her directorial debut, is the first Indian film in 30 years and the first Indian film by a female director to be presented in the main competition. His last film was Shaji N Karun’s ‘Swaham’ (1994).
While the Grand Prix is Cannes’ second most prestigious award, it has a affluent history, with the list including such well-known titles as this year’s Oscar winner “Busy Zone” and Park Chan-wook’s revenge drama “Oldboy.” “All We Imagine as Lithe” has already found distributors for its North American release, but it is unclear when the film will be shown in India.
Anasuya Sengupta, one of the lead stars of Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s Hindi film ‘Shameless’, made history by winning the Best Actress award in the Un Sure Regard category at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Kolkata-based Sengupta is the first Indian artist to win the top acting honor in this category, marking a milestone for India at the prestigious film gala.
British-Indian director Sandhya Suri’s ‘Santosh’, also part of Un Sure Regard, did not win any awards, but its performance at Cannes is an achievement in itself. Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Masaan’ has previously won two awards – FIPRESCI, International Film Critics Jury Award and Promising Future section award.
“Sunflowers were the first to know…” Naika, which won the first La Cinef (feature or animated film at the film school) award, is another success for FTII. Based on a Kannada folk tale, the film tells the story of an senior woman who steals a rooster, after which the sun stops rising in the village. The third La Cinef award went to the Indian-born animated film “Bunnyhood” by Mansi Maheshwari.
Earlier Indian films included in the competition at Cannes were: Mrinal Sen’s “Kharij” (1983), MS Sathyu’s “Garm Hava” (1974), Satyajit Ray’s “Parash Pathar” (1958), Raj Kapoor’s “Awaara” (1953). , V Shantaram’s ‘Amar Bhoopala’ (1952) and Chetan Anand’s ‘Neecha Nagar’ (1946).
This year, India at Cannes also hosted a restored version of Shyam Benegal’s crowd-funded 1976 film “Manthan” at Cannes Classics. Karan Kandhari’s ‘Sister Midnight’ was featured in Directors’ Fortnight and Maisam Ali’s ‘In Retreat’ was selected for ACID Cannes. “Maya: The Birth of a Superhero,” a virtual reality title with an India connection, was also selected.
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