Flourishing Films Boards Sales on Singapore-India Company Mumba Devi’s ‘Grand Sugar Daddy’ and ‘Not Today’ at Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran Cannes 2024 was a life-changing journey for Indian production designer-turned actor Anasuya Sengupta who won best actress at the festival’s Un Certain Regard strand for “The Shameless.” Sengupta made her acting debut alongside several of her friends in Anjan Dutt’s music-themed “Madly Bangali” (2009) and served as director’s assistant to Claire McCarthy in Australian production “The Waiting City” the same year. Kolkata native, Sengupta then moved to Mumbai, home to the vast Bollywood industry. She wasn’t impressed by Bollywood and became a noted production designer and artist instead.

Laura Anderson has publicly criticised her ex-partner Gary Lucy for allegedly not "seeing or supporting" their daughter. The former couple welcomed baby Bonnie in September last year.

Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic but devastating Brooklyn odyssey about a sex worker who marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or.Baker accepted the prize with his movie’s star, Mikey Madison, watching in the audience at the Cannes closing ceremony Saturday. The win for “Anora” marks a new high point for Baker, the director of “The Florida Project.” It’s also, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or won by indie distributor Neon, following “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness” and last year’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall.”“I don’t really know what’s happening right now,” said Baker.While “Anora” was arguably the most acclaimed film of the festival, its win was a slight surprise.

“All We Imagine As Light” opens as only a film set in Mumbai can— with the gradual unfurling of this massive metropolis at dawn. Its essential workers begin corralling the huge resources needed to maintain its creaking infrastructure and feed the tens of millions of people who will wake up and take public transport to work.

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light landed a hearty eight minute standing ovation following its debut this evening at the Cannes Film Festival. 

Marta Balaga “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know…” from Chidananda S Naik, a student from FTII, Pune, India, has received La Cinef Award for best short, sparking thunderous applause, at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film, the director told Variety, was “challenging to shoot.” “We had only four days. I was basically told not to make this film.

Naman Ramachandran Payal Kapadia‘s “All We Imagine as Light” is the first Indian film in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years. A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Kapadia’s “Afternoon Clouds” was a 2017 Cannes Cinefondation selection and she won the festival’s Golden Eye award in 2021 for her documentary “A Night of Knowing Nothing.” Fiction feature “All We Imagine as Light” follows two nurses (Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha) from Kerala, southern India, who are roommates in Mumbai. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.

Katcy Stephan Indian Paintbrush founder Steven Rales has purchased Criterion and Janus Films. The mission and leadership of the companies will not change following the private transaction.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sideshow and Janus films (“Drive My Car”) have acquired all North American rights to Payal Kapadia‘s “All We Imagine as Light,” the first Indian film to screen in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years. The movie will world premiere on Thursday, May 23. It’s also one of only four films in the Competition directed by a woman.

Naman Ramachandran Oscar-, BAFTA-, Golden Globe- and Grammy-winning composer A.R. Rahman has unveiled music documentary “Headhunting to Beatboxing” at the Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Rohit Gupta, the documentary follows the Naga tribe in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, once engulfed in the depths of violence and bloodshed, that resurrects itself through the healing power of music and emerges through a musical renaissance.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed the first international sales for Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” ahead of its world premiere on Friday in the Competition section of the Cannes Film Festival. The film has been acquired in Italy by BiM Distribuzione and Lucky Red, Benelux by September Film Distribution, Spain by Bteam Pictures, Greece by Ama Films, Hungary by Cirko Film, Norway by Selmer Media, Portugal by Leopardo Filmes, Taiwan by Hooray Films and Turkey by Bir Film.

Mubi has swooped on its third 2024 Cannes competition title, Variety has learned. Having acquired worldwide rights to Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy body horror “The Substance” and U.K.

When OK! caught up with actor Gary Lucy at a recent event for The Wickers charity, he opened up on life as a family man - including being dad to five little ones. The former Hollyoaks star told us: “I have five babies. I’m the daddy man! My oldest is 18 and my youngest is eight months.

Naman Ramachandran India is making a concerted push to become a global production hub with enhanced incentives, diverse locations and a strong presence at Cannes. It is a record year for India at Cannes, with its first title in competition in 30 years, Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light,” and seven more Indian or Indian-themed films across the festival’s various strands. In addition, the country has a strong Cannes Film Market presence, while the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, on behalf of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), has organized a range of events aimed at global content co-producers, sales agents and distributors at the India Pavilion on the Croisette.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Harry Shearer has voiced dozens of characters on Fox’s “The Simpsons,” from Mr. Burns to Ned Flanders and Principal Skinner, but he was replaced as the voice of Springfield physician Dr. Hibbert when producers of the show vowed in 2020 to no longer have white actors voice characters of color.

Major Indian distribution platform Tata Play will collaborate with Amazon Prime to offer Tata Play Direct-to-Home (DTH) and Tata Play Binge customers access to Prime Video’s content.

Naman Ramachandran Indian streamer SonyLIV has unveiled the actors playing Pakistani leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his sister Fatima in its magnum opus series “Freedom at Midnight.” Based on the 1975 non-fiction book of the same name by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, the political drama delves into India’s independence movement, weaving together untold tales and critical moments from the era when the country’s then British colonial rulers partitioned the country into India and Pakistan in 1947. Formerly a member of the Congress party that the leaders of India’s independence movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru also belonged to, Mohammed Ali Jinnah became the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the formation of Pakistan.

EXCLUSIVE: Buenos Aires-based sales FilmSharks has taken international sales rights to the Chinese animated film A Hero’s Journey to the West.

is not contained to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as Simone Ashley would be the first to tell you. It includes airport arrivals, pre-event pap walks along the Upper East side, hotel departures, , and all the morning after looks that are perhaps just as curated as those designed for the gala itself. See: leaving a New York hotel yesterday afternoon in a pair of as if to remind spectators that she had up until this point been hard at work.s final coup of the 2024 Met Gala season reaffirmed her status as a cool girl on the rise, as she dressed in a leather jacket—something of a staple for this Surrey native—jean shorts and knee-high cowboy boots.

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Morrison‘s acclaimed solo play Sugar Daddy will be staged in Beverly Hills, California, prior to a planned, previously unannounced Broadway run in 2025.