Every time the Cannes Film Festival comes round, I remember with relish the time I was on the Jury of the Cannes Film Festival’s Semaine de la Critique, Critics’ Week, in 2023. In fact, 2022-23 was an exceptional year: I was on the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival; the Golden Globes’ International Voter; the Toronto International Film Festival-TIFF’s, Senior Programme Advisor, South Asia, and the Berlin Film Festival’s South Asia Delegate. Each of these are huge privileges, of course, but my mind still boggles at the total number of films I was assigned to watch that year. Uff!
It is a good year for South Asia and the diaspora at Cannes 2025, with seven films selected. In official selection, are Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound (feature, Un Certain Regard, India), Kokob Gebrehaweria Tesfay’s A Doll Made Up of Clay (short, La Cinef, SRFTI, India), and Adnan Al Rajeev’s Ali (Shorts Competition, Bangladesh). In addition, Aleem Bukhari’s short Karmash (Pakistan) is in Directors’ Fortnight, and Ananth Subramaniam’s Kattu! Bleat!, is a short film in Tamil from Malaysia-Philippines, in the Critics’ Week. In the Cannes Classics are two restored films, Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest, India, restored by The Film Foundation in collaboration with Film Heritage Foundation, et al. The second is Sumitra Peries’ Gehenu Lamai (The Girls, Sri Lanka), restored by the Film Heritage Foundation, in association with the Lester James Peries and Sumitra Peries Foundation. Altogether, a good haul for South Asia.
Overall, Indian cinema’s presence at Cannes, especially of its women, has evolved from shampoo diplomacy to jury duty. An earlier — and even younger — generation of Indian women film stars invited to Cannes, went more often on the red carpet as shampoo brand ambassadors, than having their films selected at Cannes (no argument there; business is business). So 2025 is a high point for India at Cannes, with Payal Kapadia on the Cannes Film Festival Jury, deciding on the best of world cinema. Her jury colleagues are Juliette Binoche, Halle Berry, Alba Rohrwacher, Hong Sang-soo, Carlos Reygadas, Jeremy Strong, Dieudo Hamadi and Leila Slimani. Kapadia’s rise at Cannes has been meteoric: her feature All We Imagine As Light won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2024; her A Night of Knowing Nothing, in Directors’ Fortnight, won the l’Oeil d’Or, Golden Eye, for Best Documentary at Cannes, 2021. All We Imagine as Light was developed at the Cinefondation Cannes Residency in Paris. Her short, Afternoon Clouds, screened in Cannes’ La Cinefondation in 2017. And just last month, she was honoured with l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in Mumbai.
She — and many other Indian filmmakers, including Neeraj Ghaywan, whose Homebound is in this year’s Un Certain Regard, and Shaunak Sen, whose All That Breathes won the Golden Eye for Best Documentary at Cannes in 2022 — are rewriting India’s narrative at Cannes and in world cinema. Bravo, all!
It was my fourth time at Cannes in 2023, and the second time I was on the jury at Cannes. I was earlier on the FIPRESCI Jury at Cannes in 2001; I had covered the festival as a critic in 2004, as (Jio Mami) Mumbai Film Festival’s International Cinema Programmer, 2009, and Critics’ Week Jury 2023. Our Semaine jury members were Audrey Diwan (The Happening, winner, Golden Lion, Venice), German actor Franz Rogowski (A Hidden Life, Undine), Kim Yutani (Sundance Film Festival), Rui Poças, Portuguese director of photography (Tabu, Zama) and moi. It was a rare privilege to know Ava Cahen, Critics’ Week’s classy Artistic Director. We were invited to the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night and red carpet at the Palais des Festivals. At the opening night dinner, we were seated just a table away from the ethereal Catherine Deneuve — it was humbling. I learnt I’d been recommended for the jury by Charles Tesson, my former editor at the Cahiers du Cinema, for which I wrote for about 10 years. Karma came back a full circle.
Meenakshi Shedde, film curator, has been working with the Toronto, Berlin and other festivals worldwide for 30 years. She has been a Cannes Film Festival Jury Member and Golden Globes International Voter, and is a journalist and critic. Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com