ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

cannes 2024

Festivals Guest Posts Interviews 

Payal Kapadia, first Indian to win the Cannes Grand Prix – Mythily Ramachandran interviews (Guest Post, Exclusive)

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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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Festivals Reviews 

L’HISTOIRE DE SOULAYMANE (Cannes 2024) – Review by Clotilde Chinnici

Clotilde Chinnici , , , ,

Set in Paris over the course of 48 hours that feel like an entire lifetime, L’Histoire de Souleymane follows the titular Souleymane as he prepares for his asylum application interview. As we quickly find out, Souleymane has recently arrived in France from Guinea as is attempting to secure legal residency. Every day, he pedals through the streets of Paris all day and late into the evening as an undocumented delivery worker. He sleeps in homeless shelters at night, at least when he’s able to make it to the bus in time to get there to check in. In order to maximize his chances of getting his asylum status recognized, Souleymane is paying a broker who convinces him to memorize a fake story because, as the broker advises, his real story may not be strong enough to convince the committee.

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Awards Intelligencer 

AWARDS INTELLIGENCER: Roll out the Red Carpet for Cannes – Thelma Adams reports

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With the Cannes Film Festival on the way May 14th – 25th, this year’s awards season will officially begin. Out of all those promising films on the slate from Oscar winner Emma Stone in her next collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos, Kinds of Kindness, to Andrea Arnold’s Bird, a lot of movies that sound good on paper will be thrown against the wall to see if they stick. In the past decade-plus, Cannes has become a battle ground in the fight for female representation. The balance has changed.

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