Payal Kapadia Biography: Everything About The First-Ever Indian Director Who Won Grand Prix Award At Cannes 2024

Who is Payal Kapadia: The 77th edition of Cannes concluded in a flamboyant way for India, making the event a day to remember for every Indian as not one but two Indian artists bagged prestigious awards at the Cannes 2024. The first one is Anasuya Sengupta, who won the Best Actress award for her role in Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s Hindi-language movie “The Shameless.” Sengupta became the first Indian to win the Best Actress award at Cannes. Another historic moment was created after Indian director Payal Kapadia won the Grand Prix Award for her movie ‘All We Imagine As Light’, which became the first Indian film in 30 years to get nominated in the competition section of the film festival, making Kapadia the first Indian to win Grand Prix. 

India is proud of Payal Kapadia for her historic feat of winning the Grand Prix at the 77th Cannes Film Festival for her work ‘All We Imagine as Light’. An alumnus of FTII, her remarkable talent continues to shine on the global stage, giving a glimpse of the rich creativity in… pic.twitter.com/aMJbsbmNoE

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2024

Let us know more about Kapadia’s life, movies, career, education, and more.

Payal Kapadia Early Life & Education

Payal Kapadia was born in Mumbai in 1986 to painter and video artist Nalini Malani. She attended Rishi Valley School, a boarding school in Andhra Pradesh. As a member of the school’s film club, she became familiar with pioneer directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Ritwik Ghatak. She graduated from Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College with a bachelor’s degree in economics. She completed a one-year master’s program at Sophia College in Mumbai. She later went on to study film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).  

Payal Kapadia Career, Movies

She spent five years working as a video artist’s assistant and in advertising in Mumbai during her FTII years. ‘Watermelon Fish And Half Ghost’, ‘Afternoon Clouds’, ‘The Last Mango Before The Monsoon’, ‘And What Is The Summer Saying’, ‘A Night Of Knowing Nothing’, and ‘All We Imagine As Light’ are just a few of the documentaries and feature films directed by Kapadia. 

Last night, eight minutes long standing ovation for #PayalKapadia’s #AllWeImagineAsLight. Finally India at the centerstage @Festival_Cannes. pic.twitter.com/X49mbDNprz

— Aseem Chhabra (@chhabs) May 24, 2024

Payal Kapadia Achevements

In 2017, Kapadia's first feature film, ‘Afternoon Cloud’, made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The filmmaker was the only person from India to compete at Cannes in 2017. Her experimental documentary ‘What is the Summer Saying’ made its world premiere in 2018 at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film went on to win the Special Jury Prize at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

At the Oberhausen International Film Festival in 2015, Kapadia’s experimental short film ‘The Last Mango Before Monsoon’ took home two awards: the FIPRESCI Prize and the Special Jury Prize. A number of other awards were also given to the film, including Best Film and Best Editing at the 2016 Mumbai International Film Festival and Special Mention at Filmadrid. The most well-known work of Kapadia is the critically acclaimed documentary ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’, which debuted at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and took home the Golden Eye (Oeil d’Or).