India's Chidananda S Naik From FTII Gets Cannes La Cinef First Prize For 'Sunflowers Were The First Ones To Know'

New Delhi: 'Sunflowers Were the First Ones To Know', an Indian student film from FTII, has won the first prize of La Cinef for best short on Thursday at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Chidananda S Naik, this film's major win comes as India's second prize in five years. Ashmita Guha BEogi's 'CatDog' also won the same award in 2020.


FTII Student Film Wins First Prize In Cannes Short Film Category




Chidananda told Variety that they made the film in four days. "We had only four days. I was basically told not to make this film. It’s based on folklore from Karnataka [in India]. These are the stories we grew up with, so I was carrying this idea since my childhood."


The filmmaking student made the film at the end of his one-year program in the TV course at Film and Television Institute of India. 'Sunflowers Were The First To Know' is based on a Kannada folk tale about an old woman stealing a rooster, which umtilately leads to her village drowing in perpetual darkness.


The 16-minute-short film premiered at the Cannes on Tuesday afternoon. 'Sunflowers Were The First To Know' was judged among 18 titles by a five-member jury led by Belgian actress Lubra Azabal. Chidananda won a 15,000 euro grant as the first prize winner.


Other winners in La Cinef category




Interestingly, the third prize in the La Cinef competition also went to an Indian. Mansi Maheshwari's animation film 'Bunnyhood' won a 7,500 euro grant as the third prize. Born in Meerut and an ex-student of NIFT Delhi, Mansi made the film as a student of UK's National Film and Television student.


The second prize in the La Cinef category went to Columbia University's Asya Segalovich's film, 'Out of the Widow Through the Wall', and 'The Chaos She Left Behind', made by Nikos Kolioukos of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.


A grant of 11,250 euros is granted to the second prize winner. 


The awarded films will be screened at Cinema du Pantheon on June 3 and at the MK2 Quai de Seine on June 4.


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