“SUNFLOWERS WERE FIRST ONES TO KNOW”, a film by Chidanand Naik, a student of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), has been selected in the 'La Cinef” Competitive section of 77th Cannes Film Festival, France. The festival is to be held from 15^th to 24^th May 2024. The section is an official section of the festival aimed at encouraging new talents and recognises films from film schools across the world

The film is among 18 shorts (14 live-action and 4 animated films) selected from a total of 2,263 films submitted by film schools all over the world. This is the only Indian film selected in ‘La Cinef’ section of Cannes. The Jury will hand over La Cinef prizes at a ceremony preceding the screening of the awarded films on 23^rd May in the Buñuel Theatre.

“SUNFLOWERS WERE FIRST ONES TO KNOW” is a story of an elderly woman who steals the village's rooster, which throws the community into disarray. To bring the rooster back, a prophecy is invoked, sending the old lady's family into exile.

This is the first time a film by a student from 1-year Television course has been selected at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

FTII’s unique pedagogy and focus on practice based co-learning approach to education in the field of Cinema and Television have resulted in the Institute’s students and its alumni winning accolades in various National and International Film festivals over the years.

This FTII film is a production of the TV Wing One-year program where four students from different disciplines i.e. Direction, Electronic Cinematography, Editing, Sound worked together for one project as a year-end coordinated exercise. The film is directed by Chidananda S Naik, shot by Suraj Thakur, edited by Manoj V and sound by Abhishek Kadam.

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Pragya Paliwal/Saurabh Singh