Oscars 2025: Before India, France Shortlists All We Imagine As Light As It's Academy Award Entry

Oscars 2025: Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Following the big win, the drama is now eyeing the Academy Awards. The movie, written and directed by the Indian filmmaker was shortlisted by France as an official Academy Award candidate from the country.

Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light shortlisted by France for Oscar Awards

As per several reports, Payal Kapadia's Cannes fame All We Imagine As Light has been shortlisted by France for its official entry at the Academy Awards 2025. The film was one of the four contenders for the nomination. It was shortlisted alongside Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia.

However, All We Imagine As Light was not finalised by the team. The country eventually chose auteur Jacques Audiard’s redemption thriller Emilia Perez, for its nomination in the Best Feature Film category. The news of the film being in consideration by France comes shortly after Rana Daggubati-backed Spirit Media acquired the distribution rights of the movie in India, making it eligible to become the home country's candidate in the Oscars‘ international feature category. The film, which marks Kapadia's directorial debut, is primarily in Malayalam and narrates the story of two nurses in Kerala .

It would be a great honour to represent our home country, India, at the Academy Awards: All We Imagine As Light co-producer Zico Maitra 

While getting shortlisted in France for the Academy Award is a big win for the makers, the producer of All We Imagine As Light expressed a wish for the film to be nominated from India. Speaking to Variety, co-producer Zico Maitra shared, While the film’s themes are global, this is a story about Mumbai and the lives of women in that city. It would be a great honour to represent our home country, India, at the Academy Awards. We think it could be a source of great joy for India in the way we felt it was after the film won the Grand Prix at Cannes."

Stating the reason for why France decided against nominating All We Imagine As Light, the producer Julian Graff told Variety that they see the movie as an ‘outsider’. He shared, “If All We Imagine As Light is selected by India, all producers would be happy. It seems that the films picked by India’s Oscar committees were not always the ones people expected. So we are just being cautious. We are curious to know how the movie will be judged by both committees.”

As per the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a film is eligible for a nomination from a particular country only when the creative control of the movie remains in the hands of citizens or residents of that country.