Payal Kapadia, the Indian filmmaker whose All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2024, will serve as president of the jury for the 65th Cannes Critics’ Week, running May 13-21 alongside the main festival.

Kapadia will be joined on the jury by Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin (Lurker), French singer-songwriter Oklou, Ghanaian-British producer Ama Ampadu (My Father’s Shadow) and journalist and Bangkok World Film Festival director Donsaron Kovitvanitcha.

Kapadia’s short films Afternoon Clouds and And What is the Summer Saying were selected at the Cinéfondation and the Berlinale, before her debut feature documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing went to Cannes in 2021, and won the L’Oeil d’Or for Best Documentary.

All We Imagine as Light, her second feature, was a standout at the 2024 Cannes festival, and marked her arrival as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary world cinema.

“My own journey as a filmmaker was supported early on because of film festival selections,” Kapadia said in a statement. “Through these, I had the opportunity to meet others like myself from across the world and helped me build a community of future collaborators.”

Kapadia said she embraced the jury role at a time when independent cinema is “being eroded in every country,” adding that supporting first films is “almost a resistance to market forces.” With a nod to the Cannes Critics’ Week’s Raison d’être, she called film criticism “one of the key components of the independent and art house film ecosystem. The first films are often freer, more daring and fearless, having an individual voice and to champion those is absolutely essential. First films are also fragile, and to be nurtured in a section like Critics’ Week helps them blossom amongst already established filmmakers’ work.”

The Critics’ Week jury will award the Ami Paris Grand Prize for best feature, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for best actor or actress, and the Sony Discovery Prize for best short film.

Subscribe Sign Up