Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’, The First Indian Film In The Cannes Competition In 30 Years, Gets 8-Minute Ovation Following World Premiere

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.

Tributes have been paid to the Indian media baron Ramoji Rao, who has died at the age of 87.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The 2024 ICC T20 Cricket World Cup is underway and one of the most anticipated matchups takes place this weekend as India faces off against Pakistan in a group stage match airing live on Willow TV. Pakistan is coming off a stunning loss to the U.S.

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.

Fly and flop getaways are all well and good, but if you want to burn off some of that breakfast buffet – and really explore the area you’re staying in – then a specialist walking holiday might be for you. With something for all fitness levels, these organised trips either involve staying at one hotel, which you set out from on foot every day, or moving between locations, with your luggage transported so it’s waiting for you at your next accommodation.

Members of an armed gang who slaughtered a DPD worker in a chilling 'public execution' were in the UK illegally, it can be revealed.

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.

Of the many films set in India that premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Payal Kapadia’s feature debut is the only one to focus on the country and its character, which it does by focusing on its most populated city, Mumbai. Like London, Paris and New York, Mumbai is a city of contrasts, a melting pot of castes and races, but of its 12.5 million citizens, over half are likely to live in extreme poverty. All We Imagine as Light tells the stories of the people on the breadline, those who are just about getting by, trying to hold onto their homes and their dignity as the city’s wealthy elite buy up and bulldoze their properties.

“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.

Good afternoon Insiders, Jesse Whittock back again to take you through the week’s news in the entertainment industry, as the Cannes Film Festival nears its close.

The Match Factory has finalized a raft of international deals for Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes Palme d’Or contender The Substance, following its buzzy premiere over the weekend in the presence of co-stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid.

Marta Balaga “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know…” from Chidananda S Naik, a student from FTII, Pune, India, has received La Cinef Award for best short, sparking thunderous applause, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film, the director told Variety, was “challenging to shoot.” “We had only four days. I was basically told not to make this film.

Naman Ramachandran Payal Kapadia‘s “All We Imagine as Light” is the first Indian film in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years. A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Kapadia’s “Afternoon Clouds” was a 2017 Cannes Cinefondation selection and she won the festival’s Golden Eye award in 2021 for her documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” Fiction feature “All We Imagine as Light” follows two nurses (Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha) from Kerala, southern India, who are roommates in Mumbai. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.

EXCLUSIVE: Filipino producer-distributor CreaZion Studios is unveiling a slate of film and TV productions here in Cannes, including Severino: The First Serial Killer, which has Dolly De Leon joining Dennis Trillo in the cast.

Katcy Stephan Indian Paintbrush founder Steven Rales has purchased Criterion and Janus Films. The mission and leadership of the companies will not change following the private transaction.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sideshow and Janus films (“Drive My Car”) have acquired all North American rights to Payal Kapadia‘s “All We Imagine as Light,” the first Indian film to screen in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years. The movie will world premiere on Thursday, May 23. It’s also one of only four films in the Competition directed by a woman.

Mubi has swooped on its third 2024 Cannes competition title, Variety has learned. Having acquired worldwide rights to Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy body horror “The Substance” and U.K.