Payal Kapadia’s "All We Imagine as Light" got an eight-minute standing ovation, as the end credits rolled after the film – the first Indian film in three decades to compete for the Palme d’Or – was screened.

It is the first film ever by an Indian female film director to be screened under the main segment of one of the most prestigious film festivals.

“To be able to see the film in this enormous theatre was really wonderful. Thank you,” an emotional Kapadia said at the end of the screening as the audience clapped.

“Thank you, my entire crew that is here. And also the ones who couldn’t come and are back home. Thank you to the cast, I mean… They were not just being actors in the film, we became, you know, like family. I think it was much more of a collaboration than I ever expected. Thank you very much. We have such great producers, thank you.”

The last Indian film to be screened as part of the Competition section was Shaji N Karun’s “Swaham” in 1994.

Kapadia has said that "it is an immense honour" that her Hindi-Malayalam bilingual film is part of the Competition section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

“Being selected in Cannes’ competition is truly thrilling and humbling, especially considering how much I admire many directors selected in this section, both in the past and present. It’s an immense honour to be showing my film among them,” Kapadia, who also wrote the film, her narrative feature debut, said in an earlier statement.

The film was screened alongside Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness” and 16 other films.