CANNES 2025: INDIA HAS A DIVERSE SLATE

From a restored print of a Satyajit Ray classic to a short film by an African student of a Kolkata film school named after the maestro, India has much on show at Cannes 2025

- Saibal Chatterjee

After the unprecedented high of 2024, the ongoing 78th Cannes Film Festival might feel like a bit of a dampener for India. The world’s largest film-producing nation has no entry in the festival's main Competition this year. Its presence is, however, strong enough in terms of both films and personalities not to be dismissed as insignificant. From a restored print of a Satyajit Ray classic to a short film by an African student of a Kolkata film school named after the maestro, India has much on show at Cannes 2025. Payal Kapadia, who made history last year by winning the Grand Prix for her delectable debut narrative feature All We Imagine as Light, is a Competition juror this year.

Kapadia is the seventh Indian woman and only the second South Asian female director to be a Cannes main Competition jury member after Mira Nair (1990), Arundhati Roy (2000), Aishwarya Rai (2003), Nandita Das (2005), Sharmila Tagore (2009) and Vidya Balan (2013). The 2025 Cannes jury, presided over by legendary French actress Juliette Binoche, includes actresses Halle Berry and Alba Rohrwacher, French-Moroccan writer Leila Slimani, filmmakers Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas and Dieudo Hamadi, and actor Jeremy Strong. India has a film in the festival's official selection - Neeraj Ghaywan’s sophomore Homebound, starring Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor and Vishal Jethwa.