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“Sister Midnight” (2024) is a sharp and darkly humorous satire that explores the entrapment of women within the institution of arranged marriages in India, carried by Radhika Apte with her insanely brilliant performance. The film follows Uma (Apte), a boisterous young woman who arrives in a new city after her arranged marriage, stepping into unfamiliar ground filled with a judgmental environment. The opening sequence, with Uma on a train at night, haunted by a frightening dream waiting for her, sets the tone for her journey—one filled with isolation and disillusionment. By the film’s end, she departs again, but this time in daylight, carrying all her delusions on a different train.

Uma struggles to connect with her husband, Gopal, who is indifferent to her presence. He prioritizes work and drinking, showing no interest in intimacy. Uma, eager to forge a connection, even signals her willingness to start their marital life,...

Kunal Kemmu’s maiden directorial venture, Madgaon Express, certainly has made its mark! Now, Kunal Kemmu has won the award for Best Directorial Debut at the Nexa Iifa Awards 2025!

Kunal Kemmu, best known for his acting career, stepped into the director’s chair for the first time with Madgaon Express, a story he both wrote and directed.

Reflecting on this milestone, Kunal shared his gratitude for the support he received along the way, “Being at Iifa for the first time, in my own country, among my own people, is truly special. I’m grateful to my producers for believing in me—not just as a writer, but as a director. I want to thank my team and technicians. This one belongs to them. I accept this on their behalf and promise to continue bringing diverse stories—not just as an actor but as a writer-director. Thank you, Iifa!”

This recognition...

All We Imagine As Light, directed by Payal Kapadia drama, is a moving exploration of life in contemporary India. With a compelling and contemplative story, this outstanding film features brilliant performances by Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam.

In this fabulous interview, Divya Prabha, the luminous screen stealer, talks with Subhash K Jha on life before and after All We Imagine As Light.

A lot of movie watchers in North India know you only after Payal Kapadia’s film?

I have been a part of the film industry since 2013, just over 10 years now. Looking back on my journey, I feel truly fulfilled and satisfied. These years have been filled with struggles, learning, and unlearning, all of which I now see as valuable experiences. They have shaped me, both as a person and as an artist. If I had found success and growth right at the beginning, I don’t...

Sister Midnight, the BAFTA nominated debut film from writer and director Karan Kandhari, featuring a stand-out performance by acclaimed actress Radhika Apte, will release the 14th March in the UK and Ireland.

A newly arranged marriage. An oddball couple shoved together in a small Mumbai shack with paper-thin walls. They are awkward and alone-together. Unpredictable Uma does her best to cope with the heat, her total lack of domestic skills, nosy neighbours and her bumbling spouse until the nocturnal world of the city and its inhabitants lead her to face her own strange behaviours.

Nominated for Outstanding British Debut at this year’s BAFTA Awards, Sister Midnight was a hot ticket at the Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the Golden Camera award and in Director’s Fortnight. Also nominated for four BIFA awards, Sister Midnight won Best Picture in the Next Wave Award at Austin’s Fantastic...

"Rebellion must come from within, like a viper hidden in a sock drawer." Magnolia Pictures has revealed a new trailer for an indie dark comedy titled Sister Midnight, from Indian filmmaker Karan Kandhari. This premiered in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and also showed at the London, Denver, and Sitges Film Festivals. A woman is transformed into a disturbing & ruthless figure after entering an arranged marriage. An oddball couple shoved together in a small Mumbai shack with paper-thin walls. They are awkward & alone-together. Unpredictable Uma does her best to cope with the heat, her lack of domestic skills, nosy neighbours and her bumbling spouse until the nocturnal world of Bombay and its inhabitants lead her to face her own strange behaviors. Featuring an eclectic soundtrack (Interpol frontman Paul Banks is the film's composer) and a singular visual aesthetic. Starring Radhika Apte as Uma, with Ashok Pathak,...

Marathi cinema has come a long way from introducing the Indian audience to the medium of film. One of the first pioneers of Marathi cinema, Dr Dadasaheb Phalke, brought the moving images to the audience with Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian silent film, in 1913. Marathi cinema also gave Indians the first feature film- Shree Pundalik, directed by Dadasaheb Torne, released on 18 May 1912.

The Marathi cinema suffered a significant comedown after the 1970s. With Mumbai becoming the dominant kernel for the more successful and more extensive cannon of Hindi cinema (or Bollywood), the theatre-oriented Marathi cinema seemed to shrink in size before the titan. However, in a period of the last five years when the regional-language cinema is getting more acceptance beyond the nation, the Marathi films are soaring once again for the plinth they once owned exclusively. In this piece, we curate the best of the 21st-century Marathi cinema.

15. Nude...

Following its huge success in cinemas around the world, critical acclaim, and recognition for multiple awards, including a BAFTA nomination for Film Not In The English Language, Mumbai-based writer/director Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner, All We Imagine as Light, will be available to stream exclusively on BFI Player in the UK from 17 February 2025. A BFI Blu-ray/DVD release follows on 3 March.

A Hindi-Malayalam language masterpiece, All We Imagine As Light tells the poignant stories of three underrepresented women in Mumbai, capturing their battles with adversity, solitude, and human connection. Set in the heart of a city where dreams often collide with reality, the film explores resilience and empathy through Kapadia’s poetic and visually striking len

In Mumbai, thoughtful Nurse Prabha’s routine is upset when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger, flightier and rebellious roommate, Anu, tries in vain...

Almost 20 years after his student film, “Bye Bye Miss Goodnight” (2005), Karan Kandhari makes another comedy-drama. “Sister Midnight” gathered 8 nominations in total, at such events as the British Independent Film Awards and the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

Sister Midnight is screening at Black Movie

Set in Mumbai, one of the most congested urban areas of India, the narrative follows Uma (Radhika Apte) and her attempts to find herself in a new reality, as she just moved in with her new husband, Gopal (Ashok Pathak), after an arranged marriage. They stay in a tiny one-room house, but Gopal, preferring to drink with friends after work, is rarely there. Her sole companion is the neighbour, Sheetal (Chhaya Kadam). Bored and disregarded, Uma becomes more and more frustrated. However, out of this frustration comes determination to change her situation.

At the beginning, due to a lot of exposition with very sparse dialogue, the movie does not offer much information.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light has earned another prestigious nomination. The film has made the list in the best Film Not in the English Language at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards aka the BAFTA. All We Imagine As Light, is a moving exploration of life in contemporary India. With a compelling and contemplative story, this outstanding film features brilliant performances by Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam.

The film, which won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, won Best International Feature Winner at the Gotham Awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Picture category is a soulful study of three women living in contemporary working-class Mumbai. As we said in our rave review: “All We Imagine As Light explores their experiences and focuses on the expressions of their individual light. It is complex, beautiful,...

Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” has struck a chord with young Indian audiences, exploring themes of urban displacement and chosen family that resonate deeply with a generation navigating life in metropolitan cities.

“All We Imagine as Light” explores contemporary working-class Mumbai through the lives of three women. The story centers on two roommates working at a city hospital – head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha) – alongside their co-worker, cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam). The narrative follows their interconnected lives as Prabha, whose husband from an arranged marriage lives in Germany, navigates attention from a hospital doctor; Anu conducts a secret romance with a Muslim man against her strict Hindu family’s wishes; and Parvaty faces sudden eviction from her home.

“It is a story about finding your feet in a big city, the challenges of navigating loneliness, and the beauty of sisterhood and friendship,...

Indian director Payal Kapadia is developing two additional features set in Mumbai, potentially forming a trilogy with her acclaimed fiction feature debut “All We Imagine as Light.”

Kapadia, who just attended the Golden Globes where “All We Imagine as Light” was nominated for best non-English language film and director, revealed she has begun writing her next project, a trilogy concept that is still in early stages.

“I started writing my next movie and it’s also going to be a film in Bombay. It’s a bit early, but I’m thinking about doing two more films in Bombay, and to have this kind of a trilogy,” Kapadia tells Variety.

While it’s been surprisingly snubbed from India’s Oscar committee, the international success of “All We Imagine as Light” has led to expanded distribution opportunities in India. Following its initial Indian theatrical run, the movie was re-released in smaller...

Payal Kapadia’s Grand Prix-winning, debut feature “All We Imagine as Light” begins with a slow, elongated moving shot of a blue-tinged Sabji-Mandi (Vegetable market) accompanied by a sad soliloquy: “I’ve lived here maybe 23 years. But I feel afraid to call it home. There’s always the feeling I’ll have to leave.” Taking into account a plethora of criticism from the faceless multitude, on the economic capital of India – Mumbai – the film languidly settles down to encompass the lives of three nurses: Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), each belonging to a different age group.

The three nurses have migrated to Mumbai from their native villages in search of a better living. Each of them has their own sufferings, which sometimes make them so emotionally numb that it pierces our hearts. Prabha, in her late thirties, was abandoned by her husband shortly after their marriage.

Payal Kapadia At Golden Globes 2025 (Photo Credit – Instagram)

All We Imagine As Light has proven to be one of the most successful Indian films internationally, winning accolades at the Cannes Film Festival and several other prestigious events. The film also received two nominations at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director.

However, the movie could not win in any category on the awards night. Payal Kapadia, the director of All We Imagine As Light, has now reacted to the movie’s Golden Globe snub, stating she had so much fun at the event.

All We Imagine As Light Director Payal Kapadia Reacts to Film’s Golden Globe Loss

Despite her film not winning a Golden Globe Award, Payal Kapadia seemed in high spirits as she reflected on the fun she had on the awards night. Following the ceremony, she shared a picture on her...

Inspiring or irritating, empowering or exploitative, maternal or manipulative — with many shades of gray in between — female mentorship is a common dynamic in many of 2024’s most affecting stories.

In films as diverse as “All We Imagine as Light,” “Babygirl,” “Emilia Pérez,” “The Girl With the Needle,” “Inside Out 2” “The Last Showgirl,” “My Old Ass” and “The Substance,” women develop relationships with one another that alternately risk harm as much as they mean to be helpful, forge camaraderie out of competition or simply provide a mirror reflecting — frequently uncomfortably — who they once were or may one day become.

Inspired by its writer-director’s curiosity about multi-generational friendship, Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” tells the stories of three nurses — Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) — navigating the sociopolitical complexities of Mumbai. “When there is a lot of difference in the generations, there is a sort of conflict that,...

Payal Kapadia’s remarkable feature debut charts the daily lives of three women in Mumbai in a beautifully shot ode to the city and to the power of human connections

• The best films of 2024 in the UK

• More on the best culture of 2024

‘Evening is my favourite time of the day” says a character in All We Imagine As Light, as twilight descends on Mumbai – it’s when the city comes alive. In film-maker Payal Kapadia’s feature debut, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, night-time in the city is shown in loving detail, as we see markets, fluorescently-lit shops, and trains full of women returning from work. Vermeer is famously said to have “painted with light”. The same principle seems to animate every frame of Kapadia’s film, as light delicately bounces around the screen, indicating the film’s interest in illuminating moments of hope as untold secrets lie in the shadows.

The best films of 2024 were released during a time of increasing polarization in the film industry. Tentpoles got bigger, more unwieldy, more uneven, more likely to crash and burn. On the other side of the spectrum, indie films got smaller, scrappier, more impressive that they got made at all, let alone contained such beauty.

Movies continued their difficult post-pandemic recovery in 2024. Hindering that process was a pipeline drastically thinned by the previous year’s protracted writers’ and actors’ strikes; the summer release slate was especially anemic. The outlook got a boost from the bumper crop of early-winter releases led by Wicked, Moana 2 and Gladiator II, but box office nonetheless seems headed for an annual tally well short of 2023 revenues.

Studio animation came back with guns blazing — Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4 and Moana 2 all appear certain to land in the top 5. Among critics’ darlings, Flow and The Wild Robot both looked to the animal kingdom to find hope for a planet falling apart, while the latter also provided a comforting balm for A.I. anxiety. And the artisanal magic of stop-motion animation made a comeback in Memoir of a Snail and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

The success of Deadpool & Wolverine...

After making waves at the Cannes Film Festival, Payal Kapadia’s film, All We Imagine As Light, made history with a Best Director nomination at the Golden Globes. The Indian-French co-production has earned two nominations, including one for Best Motion Picture in a Non-English Language category. Interestingly, it is Kapadia’s debut feature film.

A still from Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light | Credits: Petit Chaos/Chalk & Cheese

The film depicts the lives of two nurses living in Mumbai, played by Indian actresses Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha. The film received critical acclaim for the grounded portrayal of working women in modern India. All We Imagine as Light was the recipient of the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Festival.

Payal Kapadia’s Golden Globes Nomination For All We Imagine As Light Is Historical Payal Kapadia with Divya Prabha and Kani Kusruti during the press promotions of All We Imagine As Light...

Payal Kapadia and her brilliant debut feature film All We Imagine As Light have been nominated in two categories at the prestigious Golden Globe Awards. The director earned a nod for Best Director for a Motion Picture, and the film was nominated in the Best Motion Picture in a Non-English Language category at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards. Kapadia is the first Indian woman director to be nominated for the coveted Golden Globe award.

Kapadia responded to the nomination, “This recognition is truly humbling. I am grateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for this honor, and I dedicate it to the incredible team who made this film possible.”

A Hindi-Malayalam language masterpiece, All We Imagine As Light features brava-worthy performances by Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam. Set in the heart of a city, All We Imagine As Light is a soulful study of three women living in contemporary working-class Mumbai.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light Makes History At The Golden Globe Awards 2025 ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Director Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light has created history by bagging two nominations at the prestigious Golden Globe Awards 2025. The nominations were announced by Mindy Kaling and Morris Chestnut on December 9, 2024. The movie becomes the first Indian film to have been nominated in the Best Director Category.

All We Imagine As Light Creates History

Apart from Payal Kapadia being nominated in the Best Director Category at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, All We Imagine As Light has also been nominated for the Best Motion Picture in the Non-English language category. The other directors who have been nominated in the Best Director Category at the Golden Globe Awards 2025 include Sean Baker (Anora), Jacques Audiard (Emelia Perez), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) and Edward Berger (The Conclave). According...

Thirteen years after making her debut feature, Kiran Rao marked her directorial return with Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies), which has been selected as India’s Oscar entry for the Best International Feature Film race.

“It felt a bit like cycling, after not having cycled for a while,” Rao tells Deadline about helming her second feature film after more than a decade. “It takes a little while to find your balance, but soon you’re on your way. I had a crew that was not just young and enthusiastic, but also really driven by the film and deeply believed in what we were trying to do.”

Lost Ladies follows two brides whose lives become entangled after a late night mix-up on a train, which leads to a series of misadventures where the two brides encounter oddball characters with unexpected

consequences.

“On the surface, it is a story of mistaken identity, but...

All We Imagine As Light

Mumbai-based director Payal Kapadia's directorial feature début, All We Imagine As Light, is a deeply sensitive female centred drama with an international flavour. It feels like Kapadia has folded into her independent Indian feature a certain European and American aesthetic. It shouldn't be surprising given that Kapadia, with the support of European development funds, worked with the film's French producers in Europe before shooting the film in India.

The story revolves around the relationship between three nurses: Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam). Each have their own dramas. Prabha receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband, stirring up past memories. Anu risks her reputation when she falls in love with a secret boyfriend, while Parvaty is threatened with eviction. Beginning in Mumbai and ending in a quiet beach town, the three women set out on their own journeys of self-discovery while developing deep bonds.

A city is never just a concrete jungle when its lanes and crossings are laced with personal memories. Payal Kapadia’s debut feature, All We Imagine As Light, which won Cannes’ Grand Prix award in 2024, is an ode to the city of Bombay. Be it Muhammad Rafi’s Bombay Meri Jaan or Bappi Lahiri’s Boombai Nagariya, Bombay is often imagined as the main character—a city that compels its inhabitants to live a fast-paced life, a city that is not forgiving and almost draining, yet most experience a sense of accomplishment in becoming a part of the hustle culture. Bombay is spoken of as almost a drug that keeps you awake at odd hours and makes you believe in the possibility that your dreams can come true. It is a city of dreamers, hustlers, and achievers, and while the glorification of the grind often takes center stage, Kapadia addresses...

If you can get across one major challenge in the plot of All We Imagine As Light towards the end of the film, then Payal Kapadia’s sensually vibrant rigorously uncontaminated view of Mumbai’s dispassionate dingy working-class nightlife is easy to embrace as something truly special.

A film about commuting characters in Mumbai which doesn’t flatter to deceive. Kapadia’s cameraman Ranabir Das takes in all the stench and the endless chaos with a sighing, reverent, arching view.

The ‘lens’ said, the better.

The actors don’t speak like actors. They talk. They don’t spew lines. They say whatever they have to say, and not what we would like to hear.

Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) are nurses in a low-maintenance hospital who are also roommates. Their life is no bed of roses for sure. The smell all around them assails us. Not that they...

All We Imagine As Light, directed by Payal Kapadia, is a moving exploration of life in contemporary India. With a compelling and contemplative story, this outstanding film features brilliant performances by Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam. The film, which has earned a perfect 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, is now playing in New York and Los Angeles with multiple sold-out shows. This Friday, November 22nd, it will open in cinemas in Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and San Diego. More cities will be added over Thanksgiving.

The film, which won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is a soulful study of three women living in contemporary working-class Mumbai. All We Imagine As Light explores their experiences and focuses on the expressions of their individual light. It is complex, beautiful, sad, full of darkness and light, both imagined and real, and it’s utterly brilliant.

I was surprised when it was announced that another film and not writer-director Payal Kapadias lush All We Imagine as Light would be Indias entry to the Oscars. The films story spans three generations and its a loving, heartwarming ode to the strength of its characters, each of whom lives outside societal norms in some way and struggles to come to terms with their current situations. The drama boasts stellar performances from its cast and allows us to sit in their feelings as they navigate changes affecting their lives while supporting each other.

All We Imagine as Light

Director Payal KapadiaRelease Date November 15, 2024Writers Payal KapadiaCast Madhu Raja, Lovleen Mishra, Anand Sami, Azees Nedumangad, Hridhu Haroon, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Kani KusrutiCharacter(s) Kaki, Dr. Supriya, Drowned Man, Dr. Manoj, Shiaz, Parvaty, Prabha, AnuRuntime 118 MinutesGenres Drama

In Mumbai, Prabha (Kani Kusruti) is a nurse who receives a house gift from her husband,...

“The city takes time away from you,” an unseen voice says, near the beginning of Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light. “You’d better get used to impermanence.” The city in question is Mumbai, which an opening montage presents as a monsoon-season metropolis filled with clashing dialects, crushes of crowds and a tropical level of heat. The writer-director started her career as a documentarian, and while it’s a cliché to call a location a character in a movie, there’s the sense that she’s...

Few films have exposed the hollowness of the Oscars’ selection process for Best International Feature quite like writer-director Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light. The film marked India’s first feature to play in the Cannes Film Festival’s Official Competition in three decades, yet the country’s selection committee went in another direction with their choice in the category. “The jury said that they were watching a European film taking place in India,” a representative said, “not an Indian film taking place in India.”

Such a statement proves the necessity of Kapadia’s city symphony, which harmonizes the tales of three women from different backgrounds. The core dynamic of the film is the relationship between two colleagues and roommates—Prabha (Kani Kusruti), the stoic head nurse at a Mumbai hospital, and her energetic new hire, Anu (Divya Prabha)—as such cohabitation in the urban core of one...

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published during the 2024 Telluride Film Festival.

“All We Imagine as Light” is a film that is difficult to describe. You have to experience it. Indian documentarian and rookie scripted filmmaker Payal Kapadia tells the story of two Mali nurses in Mumbai, and shoots the city in a singular visual style.

She has lived there, and understands its rhythms and colors. One veteran nurse (Kani Kusruti) is estranged from her husband from an arranged marriage. He’s living abroad, and she misses him. A mysterious package arrives, a rice maker. Is it from him? Her younger roommate (Divya Prabha) is enjoying a secret affair with a Muslim. Another older friend (Chhaya Kadam) is about to be evicted from her apartment. When the roommates help her move back to her home village, the movie shifts into another mode, and winds up somewhere unexpected.

I spoke...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on May 23. Sideshow/Janus opens “All We Imagine as Light” in select theaters on November 15.

The intimate way that women move through a city sprawl gives Payal Kapadia’s drama about two nurses in Mumbai a deeply romantic gauze. This romance has to do with the way that people occupy their space in this world, whether alone or sharing it with others. The younger nurse Anu (Divya Prabha) comes in from the rain and, although she is giving her roommate Prabha (Kani Kusruti) the silent treatment after an earlier insult, she is still comfortable stripping her top off in front of her, in order to change into something dry. All the while Prabha is trying to make good, saying that she has made Anu’s favorite dish.

This casual everyday vignette is brimming with a sensuality that...

Bustling bodies blur together like the raindrops pouring from the gray Mumbai sky. Connection is inevitable in All We Imagine Is Light, writer-director Payal Kapadia’s Grand Prix-winner from this year’s Cannes. This is by virtue of sheer numbers—the cramped living quarters, full subways, and busy streets map...

We have a brand new look into Payal Kapadia’s brilliant film, with the UK trailer for All We Imagine As Light. The 2024 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner, opens in UK and Irish cinemas on 29 November 2024, followed by a BFI Blu-ray and BFI Player release in early 2025.

An independent Indian feature with the look and feel of a European arthouse modern classic, exploring the complexities of friendship between three women, this beautiful, sweeping and emotional film brilliantly captures the frantic pace, the vibrant colours and the heady atmosphere of life in modern Mumbai.

Featuring Kani Kusruti (Girls Will Be Girls), Divya Prabha (Family) and Chhaya Kadam (Sister Midnight) in the lead roles, the film begins in Mumbai, thoughtful Nurse Prabha’s routine is upset when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger, flightier and rebellious roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in...

The Marrakech Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup on Thursday and set that Luca Guadagnino would replace Thomas Vinterberg as its jury president. The other jury members will be Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, and Ali Abbasi. Vinterberg “had to excuse himself for family reasons,” festival organizers said.

The Marrakech fest on Thursday also unveiled the lineup for its competition, 11th Continent, and Moroccan Panorama sections, as well as gala and special screenings. In the competition, 14 films will compete for the Étoile d’Or, or Golden Star.

The 21st edition of the fest in Morocco will also honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and, posthumously, pay homage to Moroccan star Naïma Elmcherqui. The Marrakech fest takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 7.

Check out the full lineup for the 2024 edition below.

Competition

Across The Sea (LA Mer Au Loin)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba,...

A woman sits alone in a dark room, staring at the wall in front of her. Days go by; the paltry sunlight shifts here and there, her outfit changes, yet her dull demeanor remains. She spills some rice, adds some plants, eventually makes space for a mop and bucket. On and on and on.

This is an accurate summary of Karan Kandari’s “Sister Midnight,” but one that’s also woefully incomplete. The rest should be saved for seeing it yourself, to gain some context for what keeps the woman in that room, for the many birds (and the goat), and for where Chhaya Kadam from “Laapataa Ladies” fits in.

Kandhari wrote and directed the film about Uma (Radhika Apte), a woman who moves to Mumbai after marrying husband Gopal (Ashok Pathak) and finds her life sucked dry of any and all excitement. She spends her days mostly cooped up...

Payal Kapadia’s Grand Prix-winning “All We Imagine as Light” just had its premiere at the Mami Film Festival 2024. The excitement was predictably through the roof. Of course, it was partially related to the recognition it received which an Indian film had not even stood a chance for in several years. However, another tissue connects the film specifically to Mumbai, the city that was excited about it. It’s the supposed ‘Mumbai Spirit’. In the post-screening Q&a session, Kapadia briefly spoke about the same phenomena.

Mumbai is a city filled with contradictions. Many people come to this ‘city of dreams’, looking at it through their rose-tinted glasses. They go on a journey akin to the ‘American dream.’ They assume their efforts or skills are enough to let them rise up the ladder. So, they tolerate its inescapable sweat and dust, the massive rent prices, and the crowded trains. While living there,...

The new trailer and poster have debuted for Payal Kapadia’s acclaimed film All We Imagine As Light which won the Grand Prize at this year’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Celebrated by audiences at top festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, and earning a perfect 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, the award-winning motion picture begins its theatrical release on November 15th.

Written and Directed by Payal Kapadia, this brilliant film stars Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, and Azees Nedumangad

The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated in All We Imagine As Light. Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital — head nurse Prabha and recent hire Anu — plus their coworker, cook Parvaty, Kapadia’s film alights on moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment to...

"You could just vanish into thin air, and no one would even know." Janus Films has revealed the official US trailer for an acclaimed indie drama titled All We Imagine As Light, made by a young Indian filmmaker named Payal Kapadia. This first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year as one of the most acclaimed films of the festival, picking up the Grand Prix award. The Mumbai-set story follows two nurses & roommates who head off on trip to a beach town to find a space where their desires can manifest. 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. The cast features Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, and Hridhu Haroon. They escape to a coastal town which leads them...

Payal Kapadia’s critically acclaimed narrative debut, “All We Imagine as Light,” spotlights the close community of women within the intergenerational nursing realm.

Kapadia, who previously directed Cannes’ Golden Eye award-winning documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing” in 2021, has been working on “All We Imagine as Light” since film school. The feature was the first Indian film to premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years, and later won the Grand Prize at the festival.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital —head nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and recent hire Anu (Divya Prabha), plus their coworker, cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) — Kapadia’s film alights on moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment. Prabha, her husband from an arranged marriage living in faraway Germany, is courted by a doctor at her hospital; Anu carries on a romance with a Muslim man,...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2, 2024.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

In a defining scene from Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, Prabha, the protagonist, is seen embracing a rice cooker as if she were making love to it. It’s a powerful moment in this two-hour drama, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes 2024, as it unveils for the first time Prabha’s suppressed yearning for affection. She had been mopping the floor of her drab Mumbai apartment with linen sheets she saved from the hospital where she works as a senior nurse.

The rice cooker, a surprise gift from her husband who disappeared a few months after their arranged marriage, is a monolith-like object, reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Until that moment, she hadn’t dared to look at it or imagine it as a message from another world, where her husband might still be tethered to her. But like many who put on a brave but confused front,...

Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “All We Imagine as Light” could find itself being in the enviable position of being the entry of choice at the Oscars’ international feature category from not one but two countries – France and India.

Earlier this week, “All We Imagine as Light” sparked a surprise as it turned up in the roster of four movies shortlisted by France’s Oscar committee; alongside Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” “The Count of Monte Cristo,” an epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic, as well as Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.”

Mainly produced by Thomas Hakim and Julian Graff through their France-based company Petit Chaos, the film secured distribution deals in most major territories months ago, including in the U.S. (where Janus Films and Sideshow will release it in the fall) and France (Condor Distribution), and is on track to become one of the most...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light is a moving and contemplative exploration of life in contemporary, working-class Mumbai. This unique and compelling story features brilliant performances by Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam. The outstanding film, with its distinct art-house feel, takes you inside an emotional Indian tale.

The tale begins in documentary form, with the first shots taking you to the streets, where you experience the bustling areas full of people and hear the sounds of Mumbai. Then, weaving through that, you hear stories of people who live there. It’s a marvelous way to set up where you are and prepare you for the incredible journey Kapadia will take you on.

The focus then sharpens to Kani Kusruti’s Prabha in a glorious shot; then, the frame finds Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam). We enter their world, their darkness, and their light. It...

Spirit Media, founded by “Baahubali” star Rana Daggubati, has acquired India distribution rights for Payal Kapadia’s Cannes prizewinner “All We Imagine as Light.”

Written and directed by Kapadia in her narrative directorial debut, the film tells the story of two women in Mumbai — Prabha, a troubled nurse who receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband, and Anu, her young roommate who is seeking a place to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest. The film stars Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon.

Kapadia said: “This film is about friendship between three different women and oftentimes women are pitted against each other, but for me friendship is a very important relationship because it can lead to greater solidarity, inclusivity and empathy towards each other.”

The film won the Grand Prix at Cannes earlier this year.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which won the grand prix at Cannes, has sold to a slew of territories as it sets off on a North American festival tour of Telluride, Toronto and New York.

It is also screening as a Special Presentation at the BFI London Film Festival in October.

Paris-based Luxbox has signed further deals for the Mumbai-set film to Rialto for Australia and New Zealand, Rapid Eye Movies for Austria and Germany, Mostra de São Paulo and Telecine in Brazil, Beta Film in Bulgaria, Aerofilms in the Czech Republic, Camera Film in Denmark and Cinemanse Oy in Finland.

Janus Films and Sideshow have set the U.S. release date for “All We Imagine as Light,” the critically acclaimed Indian drama that won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, for Nov. 15 in New York and Los Angeles, with a nationwide expansion to follow.

Written and directed by Payal Kapadia in her narrative directorial debut, the film tells the story of two women in Mumbai — Prabha, a troubled nurse who receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband, and Anu, her young roommate who is seeking a place to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest. The film stars Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon.

Read: You can see all Academy Award predictions in all 23 categories on one page on the Variety Awards Circuit: Oscars.

The co-distributors hope the drama...

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner, All We Imagine as Light (2024), written and directed by Payal Kapadia, will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on 29 November 2024. A BFI Blu-ray and BFI Player release will follow in early 2025.

Featuring Kani Kusruti (Prabha), Divya Prabha (Anu) and Chhaya Kadam (Parvaty) in the lead roles, All We Imagine as Light was the first Indian film to be selected in an Official Competition at Cannes in three decades. Payal Kapadia also made history as the first female Indian filmmaker ever to have a film in this prestigious section of the festival. After dancing down the red carpet, the director and her cast saw the film receive an eight-minute standing ovation; worldwide critical acclaim and 5-star reviews followed.

An Indian feature with the look and feel of a European arthouse classic, exploring the complexities of female friendship, this beautiful, sweeping, emotional film brilliantly captures the frantic pace,...

Chhaya Kadam is ready to captivate audiences once again with her latest film, ‘Bardovi,’ directed by Karan Shivajirao Chavan. Renowned for her powerful performances, Chhaya is now making her debut as a producer for this film.

First Look Released

The actress recently took to social media to unveil the poster of ‘Bardovi.’ The poster features Chhaya draped in a shawl, hinting at an intriguing role. Alongside Chhaya, the film stars Chittaranjan Giri and Virat Madke.

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A post shared by Chhaya Kadam (@chhaya.kadam.75)

Acting Prowess

Chhaya Kadam has consistently impressed her fans with her versatile acting skills. Following the success and appreciation of her previous film, ‘All We Imagine As Light,’ Chhaya is set to showcase her talent once again in ‘Bardovi.’

Release Date

‘Bardovi’ is slated to release on August 2, promising another compelling performance from Chhaya Kadam, both in front of and behind the camera.

All We Imagine as Light.The films of Payal Kapadia exist at the intersection between scorching injustices and reveries that transcend them. All of her works, four shorts and two features to date, are dotted with people struggling to connect and overcome systemic forces that keep them apart. Hers is a cinema of liberation, committed not simply to documenting acts of resistance, but to using the medium as a vehicle for change. Her debut feature, A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021), offers far more than a piercing look at the 2015 student strikes that swept across her alma mater, the Film and Television Institute of India. It manages to also harness the energies that pulsated from those crowds—an insider’s account that, through caliginous imagery and non-diegetic sounds, vividly captures the feeling of being one with the students fighting the appointment of a TV actor and right-wing politician as their university’s new chairman.

Laapataa Ladies Verdict: Still Ruling After 100 Days ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies deserves all the accolades as the film has been the talk of town for over 100 days ever since it was released on March 1 in the theaters. After an underwhelming response in the theaters and low box office collection, it arrived on Netflix.

Laapataa Ladies Ott Verdict

The social dramedy created waves on Netflix with its viewership number and even broke records as the film with the longest streak in Netflix’s global top 10 charts. It made its exit in the seventh week but accomplished another feather in its cap.

Laapataa Ladies, starring Sparsh Srivastava, Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel, and Ravi Kishan, earned 17.1 million views on Netflix in six weeks, the highest for any Bollywood film released in the year 2024. However, 100 days after its release, it has another accomplishment in its record book!

Trending ARBade Miyan...

Kiran Rao’s brilliant film, Laapataa Ladies, is a comedy-drama with a quirky narrative, hilarious dialogues, and a talented cast. The film stars Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam, and Ravi Kishan in lead roles. Laapataa Ladies is based on an award-winning story by Biplab Goswami.

The universally praised film has now completed 100 days in cinemas, marking a significant milestone. Touted as the ‘Most loved film of 2024’, it continues to win hearts in its 15th week in cinemas. Laapataa Ladies is the must-watch film of 2024, bringing humour and heartwarming moments to the big screen.

Check out a glimpse into the world of Laapataa Ladies with this special video!

https://bollyspice.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Celebrating-100-days_post_final.mp4

If you have not seen it, go to the cinema or stream it on Netflix. We highly recommend that you experience the magic of Laapataa Ladies! We certainly plan to watch it again again!