Filmmaker Payal Kapadia to serve as jury president at 65th Cannes Critics' Week
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Filmmaker Payal Kapadia to serve as jury president at 65th Cannes Critics' Week")
File image of Payal Kapadia
Payal Kapadia, whose critically acclaimed film All We Imagine As Light earned international laurels in 2024, will serve as jury president at the Cannes Critics' Week at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival 2026.
Celebrated filmmaker Payal Kapadia will serve as the president of the jury for the 65th Cannes Critics’ Week. Kapadia had created history by becoming the first Indian filmmaker to win a Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival 2024 for her critically acclaimed film All We Imagine as Light.
Kapadia returns to the festival as the president of the jury and will be joined by Canadian actor Theodore Pellerin, French singer-songwriter Oklou, Ghanaian-British producer Ama Ampadu, and journalist and Bangkok World Film Festival director Donsaron Kovitvanitcha.
Payal Kapadia has, over the course of six short and feature-length films, "crafted a body of work where poetry contrasts with her unflinching political take on her country," said the Critics' Week in a statement.
"This duality underpins the power of her cinema, a universe that summons all forms to convey folk myths, and bring to the fore invisible lives, class struggle, and the realities of women's lives," it added.
It is worth mentioning that Payal Kapadia's short films 'Afternoon Clouds' and 'And What is the Summer Saying' were selected at the Cinefondation and the Berlinale, before her debut feature documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing went to Cannes in 2021. It also won the L'Oeil d'Or for Best Documentary.
Her second feature, All We Imagine as Light, emerged as a standout at the 2024 Cannes festival.
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Payal had also served as a jury member at Cannes Film Festival 2025.
Speaking on embracing the jury role, Kapadia shared, "My own journey as a filmmaker was supported early on because of film festival selections. Through these, I had the opportunity to meet others like myself from across the world, which helped me build a community of future collaborators."
She further added, "At a time where independent cinema is being eroded in every country, supporting the first works of filmmakers is almost a resistance to the market forces. Film criticism is one of the key components of the independent and arthouse 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 filmmaker's work," as quoted by Variety.
Critics' Week will be held in Cannes from May 13 to 21.
(With agency inputs)
