Payal Kapadia has made history by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her debut feature film “All We Imagine as Light” which chronicles the journey of two nurses pursuing their dreams and desires.

She is also the first Indian woman director whose film featured in the main competition section at Cannes.

A post on Instagram by the Festival de Cannes on Saturday read: “Le Grand Prix est attribue a ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT de PAYAL KAPADIA. The Jury Prize goes to ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT by PAYAL KAPADIA#Cannes2024 #Palmares #Awards #GrandPrix.”

Kapadia’s film bagged the award, the second most prestigious prize of the Cannes Festival after the Palme d’Or which went to American director Sean Baker for “Anora” at the closing ceremony on Saturday night.

Kapadia’s movie, which was screened on Thursday night, is the first Indian film in 30 years and first ever by an Indian female director to be showcased in the main competition.

‘All We Imagine as Light’, a Malayalam-Hindi feature, is about Prabha, a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her long estranged husband that throws her life into disarray. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a private spot in the big city to be alone with her boyfriend. One day the two nurses go on a road trip to a beach town where the mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest, according to the plotline.

An alumna of the Film And Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Kapadia is best known for her acclaimed documentary ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ which had premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight side-bar where it won the Oeil d’or (Golden Eye) award.

The Cannes Festival, which began on May 14, ended on May 25.