Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes, which was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, has won L'Oeil d'or (The Golden Eye) award.
Congratulations to @allthatbreathes for winning the Best Documentary @Festival_Cannes - l’ŒIL d’Or pic.twitter.com/WHtA0cLcG4
— Ryan Werner (@ryanwernernyc12) May 28, 2022
This is the second year in a row that India has won documentary honours; Payal Kapadia’s A Night Of Knowing Nothing, an exploration of university student life in India, won the same honour last year.
The jury members, Agnieszka Holland, Iryna Tsilyk, Pierre Deladonchamps, Alex Vicente and Hicham Falah, stated, “The Golden Eye 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. It’s an inspirational journey in observation of three Don Quixotes who may not save the whole world but do save their world.”
The documentary also won the world cinema grand jury prize at Sundance and was screened at Cannes this year as a special screening.
Set in Delhi, the film follows two brothers Saud and Nadeem who have long cared for the black kite population in the city.
HBO Documentary Films bought worldwide television rights for it; the film is expected to be released theatrically in the US this autumn. It will also be premiered on HBO and its streaming platform HBO Max next year.
The jury’s Special Award went to late Lithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravicius and his film Mariupolis 2. The film, an examination of a society living under the threat of war, was finished by his partner Hanna Bilobrova after Kvedaravicius was killed by the Russian army while filming the war in Ukraine in April.