The Indian director Payal Kapadia employed guerrilla-style filmmaking tactics to capture the swarming streets of Mumbai in her prize-winning debut feature, All We Imagine as Light. The 38-year-old director could not help but think of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, a mold-breaking debut from 64 years ago, for which similar methods were incorporated to shoot on the streets of Paris without any permits or permission. The gamble paid off—All We Imagine as Light became the first Indian film in 30 years to compete for the coveted Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In fact, it did far more than just compete, as Kapadia became the first female Indian director to walk away with the festival’s runner-up award, the Grand Prix. Kapadia made All We Imagine as Light to show the complexity and richness of people from all over India coming to live and work in Mumbai. The film digs into the paradoxical condition of working women with financial autonomy who live apart from their families but are still governed by traditions of arranged marriage and female subservience. —Tobias Grey