Shaunak Sen's "All That Breathes", an audience favourite from the outset, won the 2022 L'Oeil d'Or (Golden Eye) for the best documentary at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday (28), making it two in succession for India.
"All That Breathes" is about two Delhi brothers Nadeem and Saud who, amid the city's worsening air and deteriorating social fabric, devote their lives to saving migratory black kites that are at the mercy of mankind's unthinking ways. The film was screened as part of the festival's Special Screenings line-up
The award was announced by a jury chaired by veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland
The citation read: The 2022 L'Oeil d'Or goes to a film that, in a world of destruction, reminds us that every life matters, and every small action matters. You can grab your camera, you can save a bird, you can hunt for some moments of stealing beauty, it matters.
The citation described All That Breathes as an inspirational journey in observation of three Don Quijotes who may not save the whole world but do save their world.
Sen's win is India's second in Cannes in two years. In 2021, Payal Kapadia's "A Night of Knowing Nothing", which played in the parallel Semaine de la Critique (Cannes Critics' Week) took home the L'Oeil d'Or
"All That Breathes" was competing with ace Chilean documentarian Patricio Guzman's "MyImaginary Country", Ethan Coen's "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind" and Sergei Loznitsa's"The Natural History of Destruction", among other films
The L'Oeil d'Or jury bestowed a Special Award posthumously on Mantas Kvedaravicius for his film "Mariupolis 2'. The Lithuanian director was among thousands of civilians killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion
The jury described "Mariupolis 2" as a film impossible to compare with any other from the competition.
(PTI)
Reena Barai, chair of the PB Conference, on the podium with Sadik Al-Hasan, Harry McQuillan, Shilpa Shah and Nick Kaye on stage
Yasmin Karsan, Pritee Panchmatia and Fin McCaul
Baba Akomolafe, Rachna Chhatralia, Patricia Tigenoah-Ojo and Raj Matharu
Shailesh Solanki 
Reena Barai 
Janet Morrison
David Webb 
Damian Talbot
A still from Phule
Nirmala Sitharaman speaks at the India-UK Investor Roundtable in London last Wednesday (9). On the panel were India’s department of economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth and Kotak Mahindra Bank founder Uday Kotak
Sitharaman with Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves
Sitharaman with Jonathan Reynolds 
Sitharaman with Reynolds, Alastair King, India’s high commissioner Vikram Doraiswami and other delegates