Amid an award-winning spree and an Oscars campaign gaining momentum by the day, All We Imagine As Light maker Payal Kadia has urged moviegoers to fill out a Google form for organising screenings of her film in Kolkata, Guwahati, Chandigarh and five other cities where the movie isn’t running in theatres.
Kapadia’s debut feature film, All We Imagine As Light, premiered at 2024 Cannes International Film Festival in May this year and won the Grand Prix award. In Kolkata, the film hit select theatres on November 22 but had to be dropped from the listing due to the release of big-budget commercial films like Pushpa 2: The Rule on December 5.
“If you have the time, can Guwahati, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Patna, Dehradun, Navi Mumbai, Thane people fill this form - I know it’s pretty basic … sorry 🙈,” the FTII alumna wrote on X.
On December 18, Kapadia had announced that her team wants to organise more screenings in India and asked users to add names of their cities in the comments. “We want to do weekend screenings in some cities. But we need to have a quorum !!! Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, you will have shows, don’t worry. But other cities, if you really want them, please write your city name below and we will try our best to,” she wrote.
On Monday, Payal announced that shows have been added in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. She shared the Google form and asked users in other cities to fill it out if they want their cities to host screenings too.
Although All We Imagine as Light did not make it as India’s submission for Best International Feature at the 97th Academy Awards, it will still contend independently in all categories, including best picture, best director, and best original screenplay, as announced by Sideshow, one of the film’s co-producers, on Saturday.
On Sunday, All We Imagine as Light won the best international film award at the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, adding to its growing collection of accolades. The film has already been honoured as best international feature at the 2024 Gotham Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the San Diego Film Critics Society, the Phoenix Critics Circle, the Florida Film Critics Circle, the Toronto Film Critics Association, the Lumiere Awards, and the Asia Pacific Film Awards.
Additionally, it received two nominations — best foreign language film of the year and best film of the year — at the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards. Former U.S. President Barack Obama also included All We Imagine as Light in his list of favorite 2024 films.
Set in Mumbai, this Malayalam-language drama stars Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, and Azees Nedumangad. The story follows the lives of three working women: Nurse Prabha (Kusruti), who is emotionally shaken after receiving an unexpected gift from her estranged husband, and her younger roommate Anu (Prabha), who struggles to find private space for her relationship with a Muslim man (Haroon). Their lives intersect in a transformative journey to a coastal town, where they seek peace and resolution.