Payal Kapadia's documentary, 'A Night of Knowing Nothing', bags Amplify Voices Award at TIFF

Mumbai, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia's documentary "A Night of Knowing Nothing" has won the Amplify Voices Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the organisers announced Sunday. The documentary, which had also won the Oeil d'or (Golden Eye) award at the Cannes Film Festival in July, had its international premiere in the Wavelengths Features segment of TIFF.

The Mumbai-based director's first feature follows a university student in India, who writes letters to her estranged lover while he is away.

The news was shared by the festival on its official Twitter handle.


"Announcing the recipient of the #TIFF21 Amplify Voices Award, presented by @canadagoose: Payal Kapadia's 'A Night of Knowing Nothing.'"

The festival also shared a video message from Kapadia and the film's cinematographer, editor and one of the Indian producers, Ranabir Das.

"Thank you so much for giving us this award, we really appreciate it... We'd also like to thank all our friends, who've been such an important part of this film and who've really contributed to it a lot. Without whom this film would not have been possible," Kapadia said.

The filmmaker also thanked the movie's French producers, Thomas Hakim and Julien Graff.

Other winners of the Amplify Voices Award include Finnish-Somali writer-director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed's "The Gravedigger's Wife" and Canadian filmmaker Rhayne Vermette's "Ste. Anne".

Last year, filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane's "The Disciple" had won the award at TIFF.

Kapadia, an alumna of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), has films such as the documentary "And What is the Summer Saying" (2018) and "Last Mango Before the Monsoon", the 2015 short, to her credit.

The 46th edition of the prestigious film gala ran from September 9-September 18.