Recap 2025: Indian Women Artists Who Won Global Recognition

By: WE Staff

Payal Kapadia - Film Director

Payal Kapadia is an acclaimed Indian filmmaker whose poetic, socially grounded storytelling has brought historic global recognition to Indian cinema. Her early short Afternoon Clouds (2017) was the only Indian selection at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, followed by a breakthrough win at Cannes in 2021, where A Night of Knowing Nothing earned the Golden Eye Award. In 2024, her fiction debut, All We Imagine As Light, made history by winning the Grand Prix at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Indian film to do so.

The film’s global journey continued in 2025 with a Best Film win at the 18th Asian Film Awards and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director, another first for an Indian filmmaker.

Anuparna Roy - Film Director

Anuparna Roy is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter who made history in 2025 by becoming the first Indian director to win the Best Director Award in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival for her debut feature Songs of Forgotten Trees. Presented by Anurag Kashyap, the film stood out among thousands of global submissions for its poetic yet grounded storytelling.

Rooted in her upbringing in rural West Bengal, her work explores memory, identity, migration, and ecological loss through intimate human narratives. Songs of Forgotten Trees follows two migrant women navigating life in Mumbai, resonating deeply with international audiences.