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Agence France-Presse

While Indian cinema is best known for Bollywood extravaganzas, it is an art-house film about three women navigating loneliness and love in a metropolis that is gaining viewers and earning international recognition.
All We Imagine as Light, a multi-language film set in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, has won several international awards this year, including the Grand Prix at Cannes.
It is also the first Indian film to be nominated in the best director category at the Golden Globes, which will be presented on January 5, as well as in the best picture category for non-English movies.
For director Payal Kapadia, the response to her debut film in her home country is an added bonus to the accolades it has earned abroad.


“It’s very difficult for independent films to get screens in India. I am very happy with the response. Now I want to show the film in places in the country where it has not been shown so far, the smaller cities,” Kapadia said in an interview.
Independent, art-house films do not find too many takers in India, where audiences are raised on a staple diet of Bollywood and other mainstream films full of song-and-dance routines, violence and melodrama, although more serious content on streaming platforms is slowly changing tastes.
With more than US$2 million in box office sales globally, All We Imagine as Light has also been nominated for Academy Awards for best picture, best director and best original screenplay, said a representative from Sideshow and Janus Films, which own the distribution rights in the United States.
It is not, however, India’s official submission in the best foreign film category at the Oscars.
Kapadia, 38, said she thought of the idea of the film in a hospital waiting room. Initially conceived as a short film, it took eight years to make.

Former US president Barack Obama picked it as one of his favourite films of the year, in a list he shared on social media.
The story revolves around the friendship and love lives of three immigrant women who live and work in Mumbai, a congested metropolis of more than 12 million people and an important leitmotif in her film.
“Mumbai is a city of many contradictions. While life can be tough here, it gives people a sense of freedom as well. We tried capturing that in the film too,” Kapadia said.


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Asian cinema

Kani Kusruti (left) and Divya Prabha in a still from All We Imagine as Light. The art-house film is challenging Bollywood’s dominance in India. Photo: Spirit Media

Director Payal Kapadia thought of the idea of All We Imagine as Light in a hospital waiting room. Photo: Reuters

The 12 best Asian films of 2024 ranked, from The Last Dance to All We Imagine As Light

Michael Hui in a still from The Last Dance.

Kani Kusruti (left) and Divya Prabha in a still from All We Imagine as Light, the Indian film which won the Grand Prix at the 2024 Cannes film festival.

The Hong Kong films released in 2024 ranked from worst to best, led by The Last Dance

Dayo Wong Tze-wah in a still from The Last Dance. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Dayo Wong Tze-wah and Michelle Wai Sze-nga in a still from The Last Dance, one of the best films released in Hong Kong in 2024. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

(From left) director Soi Cheang Pou-soi, producer John Chong Ching and novelist Yu Yi celebrated the box office achievement of Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In at The Metroplex at Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre, on June 30, 2024. The occasion also marked the last ever screening at the cinema before it shut down.

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Nick Cheung Ka-fai in a still from Suspect.

Jasper Liu Yi-hao (left) and Stephy Tang Lai-yan in a still from As It Burns.

Angus Yeung Tin-yue in a still from Inexternal.

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Andy Lau Tak-wah in a still from High Forces.

Nicholas Tse Ting-fung in a still from Customs Frontline.

Summer Chan Tsz-huen (left) and Simon Yam Tat-wah in a still from Deliverance.

Sheena Chan Shu-yan (left) and Marf Yau Yin-tung in a still from Blossoms Under Somewhere. Photo: mm2 Hong Kong

Francis Ng Chun-yu in a still from Crisis Negotiators.

A still from Winter Chants.

Philip Keung Ho-man in a still from Possession Street. Photo: Mei Ah Entertainment

(From left) Louis Cheung Kai-chung, Bosco Wong Chung-chak and Carlos Chan Ka-lok in a still from The Unwavering Brotherhood.

Film writer and historian Law Kar in a still from the documentary film Cinema Strada.

Kaylee Yu Hoi-ki in a still from No Such Person.

Lawrence Cheng Tan-shui and Amy Lo Wai-man in a still from An Abandoned Team.

Sandra Ng Kwan-yue and Michael Cheung Tin-fu in a still from Love Lies.

Donnie Yen in a still from The Prosecutor.

(From left) Terrance Lau Chun-him, Louis Koo Tin-lok and Philip Ng Wan-lung in a still from Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.

A still from We Are Family.

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Tom Hanks and Raevan Lee Hanan in a still from Cloud Atlas. The 2012 film by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, based on David Mitchell’s novel, flopped everywhere except China, despite fans there seeing an edited version. Photo: Warner Bros

Zhou Xun (left) and Bae Donna in a still from Cloud Atlas.

Hugh Grant in a still from Cloud Atlas.

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Tom Hanks (left) and Hugo Weaving in a still from Cloud Atlas.

Tom Hanks in a still from Cloud Atlas.

How the Erotic Ghost Story films shocked and seduced Hong Kong

(From left) Amy Yip, Man Siu and Kudo Hitomi in a still from Erotic Ghost Story.

Pal Sinn (left) and Amy Yip in a still from Erotic Ghost Story (1990). Yip made the first Erotic Ghost Story a success, mainly because of her buxom physique.

Joey Wong and Leslie Cheung in a still from A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). Photo: Film Workshop

A promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story (1990).

Charine Chan (bottom right) in a promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story 2 (1991).

A promotional image for Erotic Ghost Story 3 (1992).

(From left) Pauline Chan, Kenny Wong and Chik King-man in a still from Erotic Ghost Story 3 (1992).

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Golden Globes and Oscar nominee All We Imagine as Light has shown an Indian art-house film can challenge Bollywood’s dominance of cinemas


Golden Globes and Oscar nominee All We Imagine as Light has shown an Indian art-house film can challenge Bollywood’s dominance of cinemas.


Asian cinema: Bollywood

India

Academy Awards