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Payal Kapadia

Payal Kapadia

Directing

Biography

Payal Kapadia (born 4 January 1986) is an Indian filmmaker. She is best known for having won the Golden Eye award for best documentary film at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for her film A Night of Knowing Nothing. In 2017, her film Afternoon Clouds was the only Indian film that was selected for the 70th Cannes Film Festival. Born in Mumbai, Kapadia went to Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh. She got a Bachelor's degree in economics from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. She did a one-year Master's degree from Sophia college. She then went on to study film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, where she was selected on her second attempt.

Known For

Golden Globe Awards
7.2

An annual awards ceremony recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign, bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Golden Globe Awards

1944
All We Imagine as Light
6.8

In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha's routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.

All We Imagine as Light

2024
A Night of Knowing Nothing
7.5

L, a student in India witness to the government's violent response to university protests, writes letters to her estranged lover while he is away.

A Night of Knowing Nothing

2022
Shape of Momo
N/A

Bishnu returns to her Himalayan village after quitting her job, only to face mounting family pressures and societal expectations. As tensions rise with her pregnant sister's arrival and a budding relationship with a "suitable" boy from her community, Bishnu must choose between conforming to tradition or claiming her independence.

Shape of Momo

2026
And What Is the Summer Saying?
8.2

The camera sways slightly, setting in a majestic black and white on the intimate stories of a small village bordering the jungle. A mystical and poetic cinematic experience, in which one gladly gets lost.

And What Is the Summer Saying?

2018
The Last Mango Before the Monsoon
N/A

Two technicians set up cameras in a forest to capture animal activity at night. A woman moved away from the forest a long time ago. She yearns for her late husband and the forest.

The Last Mango Before the Monsoon

2015
The Last of Them Plagues
N/A

The film centers on Sethulekshmi, a single mother whose younger daughter disappears during a visit to her husband’s grave. When police investigations prove futile, she relocates to the area with her elder daughter Neela, facing hostility from a conservative community while Neela finds love with a deaf boy at a local school.

The Last of Them Plagues

Watermelon, Fish and Half Ghost
N/A

A fable about life in a chawl (urban middle class housing society) where superstitions, relationships and crisis combines the families into a unified community. The film follows a folk tale like structure to talk about a kind of society in old Bombay city and the people that belonged to it in a fantasy tale of lost loves. the film also looks at the idea of infinite time and life cycles.

Watermelon, Fish and Half Ghost

2014
Afternoon Clouds
6.0

Kaki is a 60-year-old widow who lives with her Nepali maid, Malti. The film takes place on one afternoon in their house where a flower blossoms in the balcony. Malti meets a boy (a sailor) from her hometown unexpectedly.

Afternoon Clouds

2017
Weapons of Mass Destruction
N/A

Food and eating habits are deeply ingrained in the spiritual understanding of the human body and mind. For instance, in Hindu traditions, food is referred to as ‘Brahaman’, or God. This led me to consider, on a spiritual level, what we are doing with food today. What happens if we mutilate the basis for our existence?

Weapons of Mass Destruction

2012
If on a Winter's Night
N/A

Portrays a couple form Kerala who lost their house during harsh winter days while trying settle down in Delhi, building a bond amid challenges in a strange city.

If on a Winter's Night

2025
Between Day and Night
N/A

Without a love of my own.

Between Day and Night

2021
No image
N/A

Payal Kapadia's second entry in the Mumbai trilogy after All We Imagine as Light.

Kapadia's Second Film in Mumbai Trilogy

Memory Of Being Here
N/A

A movement montage exercise.

Memory Of Being Here

2014