‘All We Imagine as Light,’ ‘Hard Truths,’ ‘Nickel Boys’ Among Winners at 22nd ICS Awards

Payal Kapadia’s “ All We Imagine as Light ” triumphed at the 2025 International Cinephile Society (ICS) Awards, winning best picture, director and ensemble. “All We Imagine as Light” world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the grand prize of the festival, along with a flurry of international awards. It also went on earn nominations at the Golden Globes and the BAFTA’s, among others.

The International Cinephile Society praised Kapadia’s film for highlighting “the voices, the faces, the night-lit trains of vibrant modern India.” The film revolves around a trip of women from different generations who form a quiet sisterhood to find their own peace amidst daunting personal and cultural issues. “ Nickel Boys ,” RaMell Ross’s Oscar-nominated drama about Black teenagers caged in an abusive reform school, took best adapted screenplay honors for Ross and Joslyn Barnes, who wrote the script based on the book by Colson Whitehead.



“Nickel Boys,” which was produced by Plan B, also won the ICS cinematography award for Jomo Fray. Mike Leigh’s contemporary drama “Hard Truths, ” meanwhile, won best actress for Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who plays Pansy, an anxiety-plagued woman unable to trust or enjoy her family’s prickly love; and best supporting actress for Michele Austin, who plays Pansy’s easy-going sister; as well as best original screenplay. Newcomer Abou Sangaré whose performance in “Souleymane’s Story” earned him a prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and best male newcomer at the Cesar Awards, won for the ICS Awards for lead actor and breakthrough performance.

In “Souleymane’s Story,” Sangaré stars as a stressed-out Guinean immigrant cycling around Paris to deliver food orders while awaiting his crucial asylum interview. The best actor win was shared with Mahmood Bakri for “To a Land Unknown,” a Palestinian drama-thriller. In Mahdi Fleifel’s film, Bakri stars as a Palestinian immigrant who is stuck in Athens despite all his best-laid schemes.

Aram Sabbagh, who plays Bakri’s cousin who battles addiction, won best supporting actor. “Afternoons of Solitude” by Albert Serra won best documentary and editing, while Constance Tsang’s “Blue Summer Palace” won best feature debut. “Blue Summer Palace” world premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week which is curated by Ava Cahen.

The movie follows the lives of Chinese immigrants working at a massage parlor in Queens, where their dreams are disrupted by sudden tragedy. Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi romance “The Beast” starring Lea Seydoux and George Mackay, won best production designs for Katia Wyszkop. Adapted from a Henry James novella, “The Beast” featured dramatic cityscapes of the past, present and future.

Rolling off its Golden Globe and Oscar wins, Gints Zilbalodis’s Latvian feature “Flow” won the animated film category. The dialog-free tale revolves around a solitary cat’s journey in the aftermath of surging floodwaters. A Sideshow and Janus Films release, “Flow” beat “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out 2,” “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” and “Memoir of a Snail” in the animated feature category at the Oscars.

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