Payal Kapadia and Sandhya Suri Image credit: MUBI-YouTube/Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art

Indian directors Payal Kapadia and Scindia Suri are set to screen their films at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival 2024 – India’s only two features at the prestigious French film festival this year.

Following his success at Cannes last year with the documentary The night of not knowing anythingKapadia brings her fiction debut, We think of everything as light.Will go to festivals and screen in competition. A co-production between India and France, the film tells the story of two nurses from Kerala who work in a nursing home in Mumbai.

Sandhya Suri makes her narrative feature debut, Santosh, a character-driven neo-noir set in the hinterlands of northern India, will screen Un Certain Regar at this year’s event. Backed by international producers like Good Chaos in the UK and Hot Court in France, the film features a cast led by Shahana Goswami.

Both directors represent the growing recognition of Indian cinema globally, with their films supported by the British Film Institute, BBC Films, and ZDF/ARTE.

The Cannes film line-up was unveiled by Cannes Film Festival Chairman Thierry Fremaux and President Iris Knobloch at the UGC Normandy Theater in Paris. Fremaux commented on the growing importance of Indian cinema at Cannes, saying, “Historically China and India have been an important market for films…they are making a significant comeback at Cannes”.

Last year at Cannes, by Anurag Kashyap Kennedy Actors Rahul Bhatt, Sunny Leone and Abhilash Thapalial were selected for the midnight screening section of the festival. Know Behl’s Agra Also debuted in the Directors Fortnight section at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

Oscar winner Justin Tritt Anatomy of a FallIt won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year.