‘All That Breathes’ Wins L’Oeil D’or Documentary Prize At Cannes; Doc By Filmmaker Killed In Ukraine Earns Special Award

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India’s All That Breathes followed up its victory at the Sundance Film Festival by winning top documentary honors in Cannes.The film directed by Shaunak Sen, which documents a pair of Muslim brothers in Delhi who devote countless hours to restore the health of ailing black kite birds, earned the L’Œil d’or (“Golden Eye”) Award in a ceremony on Saturday.“From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, the ‘kite brothers’ care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies,” notes a description of the documentary. “As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between this Muslim family and the neglected kite forms a poetic chronicle of the city’s collapsing ecology and rising social tensions.”The Golden Eye jury, headed by filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, saluted All That Breathes for reminding “us that every life matters, and every small action matters.

You can grab your camera, you can save a bird, you can hunt for some moments of stealing beauty, it matters. It’s an inspirational journey in observation of three Don Quixotes who may not save the whole world but do save their world.”Joining Holland on the doc jury were Ukrainian filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk (The Earth Is Blue as an Orange), French actor Pierre Deladonchamps, journalist Alex Vicente, and Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Falah.

The jury awarded a special prize to Mariupolis 2, a documentary centered around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius was killed by Russian military forces in Ukraine in April while making his film.

His fiancée, Hanna Bilobrova, completed the film after his death.“Our special prize,” the jury wrote in a citation, “goes to the film