Payal Kapadia's 'All We Imagine As Light', 'Santosh' star Shahana Goswami and its director Sandhya Suri won top honors at the Asian Film Awards 2025. The 18th edition of the awards took place recently at the Xiqu Centre in the West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong.
The Asian Film Awards shared the winners' list on its official website. All We Imagine… went on to win the Best Film award. It competed alongside 'Black Dog' (China), 'Exhuma' (South Korea), 'Teki Cometh' (Japan), and 'Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In' (Hong Kong).
Kapadia, who won the Grand Prix Award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for 'All We Imagine…', said being honored for her film in a "wonderful place for cinema" like Hong Kong was a special feeling.
Payal Kapadia's directorial was adjudged the Best Film. (Photo courtesy: X@AsianFilmAwards)
The widely-feted Malayalam-Hindi movie follows two nurses Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) from Kerala navigating life and love in Mumbai along with their friend and cook Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam).
Goswami was named the Best Actress for her role in 'Santosh', which also won Suri the trophy of Best New Director. Working on the film was a pleasant journey, said the actor. "The challenging part was to believe that I could play the part, because I was very nervous about playing the character and feeling like I was acting. And I didn't want it to seem like I was acting, I wanted it to feel real..." she said.
'Santosh' revolves around a newly widowed housewife (Goswami) as she inherits her late husband’s job as a police constable and becomes embroiled in the investigation of a young girl’s murder. It is a joint production of India, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Other nominees in the Best Actress category were: Kani Kusruti ('All We Imagine…'), Sylvia Chang ('Daughter’s Daughter'), Kawai Yuumi ('Desert of Namibia'), and Kim Go-eun ('Exhuma').
