SHAUNAK SEN’S DOCUMENTARY ‘ALL THAT BREATHES’ WINS L’OEIL D’OR AWARD AT CANNES 2022! - AmNews Curtain Raiser

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Sunday, May 29, 2022

SHAUNAK SEN’S DOCUMENTARY ‘ALL THAT BREATHES’ WINS L’OEIL D’OR AWARD AT CANNES 2022!


The film has been acquired by HBO at Cannes to premiere this fall, and previously won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in January this year



Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top documentary award, L’OEil D’Or (The Golden Eye).

Per Variety, the film won the documentary grand jury prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was acquired by HBO Documentary Films during Cannes, where it played as a special screening. The film is the only Sundance movie to screen as part of Cannes’ Official Selection this year — a feat all the more impressive given Cannes is not known for its documentary programming.

Set in the Indian capital Delhi, where, in an unbreathable atmosphere, the threat of inter-religious massacres floats in the air, All That Breathes follows two brothers, Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad — working out of their derelict basement in Wazirabad, a village in Delhi — dedicate their lives to save the migratory black kites that are destroyed by human madness.

The Golden Eye jury, composed of Agnieszka Holland, Iryna Tsilyk, Pierre Deladonchamps, Alex Vicente, and Hicham Falah, said: “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 Golden Eye award was created in 2015 by the French-speaking authors’ society LaScam, in collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival.

Covering the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, I had singled out All That Breathes as the documentary film to watch out for, and once again with winning the top documentary film prize at Cannes this year, the film will most likely be nominated for the best documentary feature at the 2023 Academy Awards.

There was one heartbreaking scene in the film that was so powerful, that I don’t think I will forget it for a long time. Through his intimate and emotional lens, Sen starkly captured one of the kite’s deep pain and suffering, yet expressed its immense gratitude towards the two brothers for the rescue and safe haven.

Having visited Delhi on several occasions and witnessing the stratospheric level of pollution there, the devastation of fauna and flora and the general ecosystem in and around Delhi is beyond repair. Through Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes perhaps there is a chance that nature and natural habitats can be saved.

Look out for All That Breathes premiering on HBO this fall.


 

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