‘All We Imagine As Light’ Review: Payal Kapadia’s Poetic Meditation On Life In Urban Mumbai – Cannes Film Festival

Naman Ramachandran British writer James Graham will deliver this year’s flagship James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, supported by Screen Scotland. Graham, known for his sharp political insights and popular dramas, has made significant contributions to stage, television and film. His works include the BAFTA-winning “Sherwood,” which returns to BBC later this year, and the acclaimed “Quiz.” On stage, he brought “Dear England” to the West End, adapted “Tammy Faye” for Broadway and reimagined “Boys from the Blackstuff.” Graham’s political narratives include “Brexit: An Uncivil War” and “Coalition.” In his lecture, Graham will discuss TV drama’s role in shaping political discourse and social justice.

EXCLUSIVE: The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) will welcome Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, Sundance Institute, Roadside Attractions and Film Independent as partners for its inaugural Industry Day.

Blake Lively and Jude Law were among the many celebs who made up the star-studded crowd at Chanel’s 17th Annual Tribeca Festival Artists Dinner!

Kerry Washington‘s husband Nnamadi Asomugha just made his directorial debut with his movie The Knife at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival!

Dakota Johnson is hitting the red carpet at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.

Joey King and AnnaSophia Robb became BFFs while playing friends in the Hulu limited series The Act and they just reunited at an event!

Diane von Furstenberg is premiering her new documentary during the opening night of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival!

Jack Dunn The Newport Beach Film Festival will return to London Feb. 13 2025 for its U.K. Honors, recognizing outstanding work by British and Irish actors across film and television.

Naman Ramachandran Revered Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and ace Indian soccer player Bhaichung Bhutia are among the subjects of projects selected at the inaugural edition of India’s Doc Film Bazaar. The Bazaar has unveiled 15 projects that will participate in its Co-Production Market and the five films selected for its Work-in-Progress Lab. As revealed by Variety, the market is a documentary-focused sister edition of the Film Bazaar that takes place in Goa annually in November.

Ernest Cole, the first Black freelance photographer in South Africa, is known today for his contribution to documenting the Apartheid in the 1960s and racial attitudes in America in the 1970s. Born in 1940, he grew up in segregated South Africa before moving to the United States in his youth to evade persecution for his work.

Variety presents their favorite discoveries. Indian director Payal Kapadia’s second feature is a wise, gently lambent portrait of two roommates, both Mumbai nurses, at different points in their romantic lives. Spanning the city and the seaside, an understated yet profound bond grows between them despite different ages and outlooks, and both actresses are outstanding.

Naman Ramachandran Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s “Dear Jassi” and Arati Kadav’s “Mrs” will open and close this year’s New York Indian Film Festival. Punjabi and English-language “Dear Jassi,” a tale of star-crossed lovers based on a true story, arrives in New York after a glittering festival run that began in 2023, at Toronto, where it won the Platform Prize.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 15th anniversary edition of the London Indian Film Festival will open on June 26 with the European Premiere of U.S. indie, tear-jerker drama “Paper Flowers,” directed by Mahesh Pailoor (“Brahmin Bulls”), starring “Deadpool’s” Karan Soni. It will close on July 7 with a screening of ultra-violent Indian actioner “Kill,” which is produced by Karan Johar and Guneet Monga and which represents Lionsgate’s first foray into South Asian film production.

Naman Ramachandran Cannes 2024 was a life-changing journey for Indian production designer-turned actor Anasuya Sengupta who won best actress at the festival’s Un Certain Regard strand for “The Shameless.” Sengupta made her acting debut alongside several of her friends in Anjan Dutt’s music-themed “Madly Bangali” (2009) and served as director’s assistant to Claire McCarthy in Australian production “The Waiting City” the same year. Kolkata native, Sengupta then moved to Mumbai, home to the vast Bollywood industry. She wasn’t impressed by Bollywood and became a noted production designer and artist instead.

Blue Sun Palace was one of the prize winners at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival where it took the French Touch award of the Cannes Critics week selections (Simon Of The Mountains took the Grand Prize, the other major award from the section). French “Touch” is an ironic name for an award to a film where “touch” is key in several scenes depicted in the massage parlor setting where much of the movie takes place.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Oscar-nominated Swiss animator Claude Barras (“My Life as a Zucchini”) will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival with its Locarno Kids Award given to personalities credited with infusing younger generations with a love for cinema. Barras’ beloved stop-motion film “Life as a Zucchini,” about an orphaned boy who lives in a foster home, played at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2016, and went on to be nominated for best animated feature at the Oscars and secured distribution in over 50 territories.

Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra as executive producers give a glitzy pedigree to “Call Me Bae,” a new Hindi-language drama series set to launch on Prime Video in September. Written by Ishita Moitra, Samina Motlekar and Rohit Nair, “Call Me Bae” tells the story of Bae, a young woman who is downsized from heiress to hustler after a scandal. She learns that her most valuable assets are not her diamonds, but her street smarts and style.

Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic but devastating Brooklyn odyssey about a sex worker who marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or.Baker accepted the prize with his movie’s star, Mikey Madison, watching in the audience at the Cannes closing ceremony Saturday. The win for “Anora” marks a new high point for Baker, the director of “The Florida Project.” It’s also, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or won by indie distributor Neon, following “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness” and last year’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall.”“I don’t really know what’s happening right now,” said Baker.While “Anora” was arguably the most acclaimed film of the festival, its win was a slight surprise.

“All We Imagine As Light” opens as only a film set in Mumbai can— with the gradual unfurling of this massive metropolis at dawn. Its essential workers begin corralling the huge resources needed to maintain its creaking infrastructure and feed the tens of millions of people who will wake up and take public transport to work.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light landed a hearty eight minute standing ovation following its debut this evening at the Cannes Film Festival.