It has been a good year for Indian cinema in the cannes film festival which is currently underway. Before the festival ends on May 25, India has already scored its first win in the La Cinef category. ‘The Sunflowers Were the First to Know’, by Chidananda S Naik, won La Cinef’s first prize for best short film on Thursday. Chidananda is a student of FTII, Pune and the film was made as part of the university project. This award is the second awarded by India in five years. Ashmita Guha Neogi, also of FTII, won the award for her film CatDog in 2020.
“The Sunflowers Were the First to Know” is a Kannada short film based on a Kannada folk tale about an old woman who steals a rooster, plunging her village into perpetual darkness. Naik made the film at the end of his one-year course for the television wing of the Film and Television Institute of India. The film was selected among 18 other titles and premiered Tuesday at the festival. The category was judged by a five-member jury chaired by Belgian actress Lubna Azabal.
Speaking to Variety, Chidananda said: “We only had four days. They basically told me not to do this film. It’s based on Karnataka folklore. [in India]. “These are the stories we grew up with, so I carried this idea with me from my childhood.”
The winner of the La Cinef category received a cash prize of 15,000 euros. The third prize in the La Cinef competition went to the animated film Bunnyhood, by Mansi Maheshwari. Born in Meerut and an alumnus of NIFT Delhi, Mansi made the film when he was a student at the UK’s National Film and Television School. The film festival grants a subsidy of 7,500 euros to the third prize.
Second prize was shared by Out of the Widow Through the Wall, directed by Asya Segalovich of Columbia University, and The Chaos She Left Behind, made by Nikos Kolioukos of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. The Cannes Festival grants a subsidy of 11,250 euros to the second prize winner. The award-winning films will be screened at the Cinema du Pantheon on June 3 and at the MK2 Quai de Seine on June 4.
