The 2016 edition of the Cannes Film Festival recently concluded with the main competition awards ceremony that was held at the Palais des Festivals.
There were overall 21 films in the competition.
While some of the wins were predictable, some of them did come as a surprise including that of Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya's documentary The Cinema Travellers.
This documentarywas premiered in the Cinema section at Cannes Classics this year.
It has won the Special Jury Mention for L'Œil d'or (The Golden Eye).
It is also the first ever Indian documentary to make it to Cannes.
The Guardian reviewed it as - “An evocative, subtle and heartfelt snapshot, it also refrains from sentimentality. For all the fondness for the old, there’s equal thrill of the new.”
The Cinema Travellers has been shot over 5 years.
The documentary follows a set of men with different key roles in the process of the two travelling cinemas companies that move across rural India sharing films.
Amit Madheshiya is an independent photographer and Shirley Abraham has directed documentaries.
The two have previously conducted a series of photo exhibitions and installations on the concept of touring talkies in festivals across the world.
