Female Film Critics 24/375
Indian writer-director Payal Kapadia’s acclaimed fiction-feature debut film All We Imagine as Light will be released July 22 on Blu-ray and DVD as part of The Criterion Collection.
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Three very different women living in crowded but sometimes-isolating modern-day Mumbai navigate work, relationships, and social norms in writer/director Payal Kapadia’s understated but powerful drama All We Imagine as Light. Winner of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prize, Kapadia’s second feature is a compelling mix of beautifully observed reality and poignant magical realism that boasts excellent performances by its three female leads. Thoughtful, relatable, and full of meaning, All We Imagine as Light is an excellent example of what “female-forward filmmaking” really looks like.
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Payal Kapadia’s second feature All We Imagine as Light is a suitably vibrant portrait of the city of Mumbai. Settling quickly on a trio of women, the film opens with a broad perspective, showing images of the bustling city set to voice-overs of its various inhabitants. Many people move to Mumbai for work, resulting in a hybrid population of different backgrounds and even nationalities. Kapadia is deeply interested in women’s struggles, surrounding the story of her main trio of characters with supporting anecdotes. Kapadia avoids wrapping up her criss-crossing plots in a neat bow, keeping her film admirably true to life. Friendship, however, (especially among women) can serve as a healing force, and All We Imagine as Light depicts that salve beautifully.
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This year’s New York Film Festival boasted an impressive roster of features, with an array of talented women both behind and in front of the camera. The coveted Main Slate was stacked, with eight films directed by women and nearly as many women-centric titles directed by men. Several women directors went out on a limb, performing bold experimentations in style and genre. It is difficult to establish a theme within such a varied international festival, but in general I was taken with several women’s performances in male-directed films and by the bold choices made by many of the women directors. In either case, women are occupying center stage in a still male-dominated festival, in which the majority of the films are directed by men. It’s a promising step forward, to see so many inspiring women both in front of and behind the scenes, and one can only hope that next year will bring even more to the forefront.
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At the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, Indian director Payal Kapadia etched her name for eternity in the annals of cinema history by winning the ‘Grand Prix.’ Kapadia’s debut feature All We Imagine As Light, was singled out among 22 entries. Her contenders included Andrea Arnold, Francis Ford Coppola, Jia Zhange-Ke, Paolo Sorrentino, Sean Baker, and Ali Abbasi. Kapadia is the first Indian woman filmmaker to win the coveted prize. No other Indian director had ever competed for the honour nor bagged it. Thirty years ago, Malayalam director Shaji N Karun’s Swaham‘ qualified at Cannes for the competition category in 1994. Kapadia’s magic moment happened when AWIAL received a standing ovation for eight long minutes after its Cannes premiere.
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