The 77th Cannes Film Festival, held in 2024, will be recognized as a milestone moment for the Indian Film Industry. This famous event, which has long been a platform for the best films from across the world, saw a remarkable rise in Indian talent, gaining the attention and admiration of the worldwide film industry community. Indian filmmakers not only participated in significant numbers but they also won major awards, bringing in a new age of worldwide recognition and appreciation for India’s cinematic talent.

The Indian films shown at Cannes included a wide range of subjects and tales, representing the intricate fabric of India’s culture, history, and social dynamics. These films, which ranged from compelling dramas to informative documentaries, offered a look into the lives and stories that captivated audiences in India and throughout the world.

All We Imagine As Light

Leading the charge was Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine As Light,” which earned the festival’s Grand Prix, the second most coveted honour. This Malayalam-Hindi feature film, starring Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, and Chhaya Kadam, shares a story about three ladies in Mumbai who go on a road trip to a beach town. Kapadia’s movie, which screened on Thursday night, is not only the first Indian film in 30 years to be shown in the main competition, but it is also the first directed by an Indian woman, generating similarities to the works of cinematic notables such as Satyajit Ray and Wong Kar Wai. In her speech, she thanked the three women and said “I’m very nervous, so I wrote something down. Thank you to the Cannes Film Festival for having our film here. Please don’t wait 30 years to have another Indian film”.

Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know

The Indian short film “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know” won the La Cinef Award for Best Short at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Chidananda S Naik, a student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), made waves with his film, which is based on a Kannada folktale, is about an old woman who steals a rooster and plunges her village into an unending state of darkness. The film festival screened this 16-minute short fiction film On Tuesday afternoon. This achievement not only shows the talent rising from India’s leading film institute but also demonstrates the variety of storytelling that Indian cinema can produce.

The Shameless

“The Shameless” is a 2024 Indian film directed and written by Konstantin Bojanov. It premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The film depicts the story of Renuka, who flees from a brothel in Delhi after killing a cop and establishes a romance with Devika, a 17-year-old prostitute, after seeking safety in a sex workers community. The film was shown at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section on 17 May 2024. Anasuya Sengupta, who played the role of Renuka in the film, won the Best Performance award in the Un Certain Regard category. This made her the first Indian to win a top acting award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Bunnyhood

Bunnyhood, an animated film by Mansi Maheshwari, won third place in the La Cinef competition. Maheshwari, who was born in Meerut and a former NIFT Delhi student. Bunnyhood, a nine-minute animated video about a young girl’s anxiety premiered on Thursday. It is a surreal animation. It was produced by Ashionye Ogene and made when they were training at the National Film and Television School, UK. It was one of just 18 accepted shorts (14 live action and 4 cartoons) from among 2,263 submissions from film schools.