The Filmmaker Directing Light Out of Darkness | Meet Payal Kapadia, 2026 CHANEL Next Prize Winner

"I feel like a magpie sometimes, picking up things from the world that people left behind." Meet Payal Kapadia, a 2026 CHANEL Next Prize winner. The Mumbai-born filmmaker collects notes, conversations, and drawings to build stories that blur fiction and reality. For her, cinema is a playground. ‘All We Imagine as Light’ (2024), won the prestigious Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival—the first time this accolade was awarded to an Indian filmmaker. In this series, Payal Kapadia discusses why getting lost is part of the discovery. Discover more about the CHANEL Next Prize and meet the winners: https://www.chanel.com/-NextPrize26-PK #CHANELNextPrize Credit: Filmed at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination at Reid Hall, Paris.