India and South Asia have a solid showing at the 76th Cannes Film Festival this year, which runs from May 16-27. There are at least six South Asian films across various sections, and an Indian jury member as well. The films include Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy in the Midnight Screenings section, Kanu Behl’s Agra in Directors’ Fortnight, Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames, a Pakistani-Canadian film, also in Directors’ Fortnight, and Yudhajit Basu’s Nehemich (Always, Marathi) in La Cinef section for film school entries. In the Cannes Classics section are two more films—Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma’s Ishanou (The Chosen One), shown earlier at Cannes in 1991, now restored by the Film Heritage Foundation headed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and partners, and London-based Dheeraj Akolkar’s documentary feature Liv Ullmann: A Road Less Travelled, on the Norwegian actress, director and longtime collaborator of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. And, of course, I’m hugely honoured to be on the Jury of the Cannes Film Festival’s 62nd Semaine de la Critique/Critics’ Week. The Jury members of this section—for only first and second features and shorts—include French/Lebanese director, screenwriter and Jury President Audrey Diwan, German actor Franz Rogowski, Kim Yutani, Director of Programming,  Sundance Film Festival, USA, Portuguese cinematographer Rui Poças and myself. Semaine de la Critique/Critics’ Week Director Ava Cahen and her team made a fine, distilled selection of seven feature films and 10 shorts in competition.

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