‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ From India Bags La Cinef Prize at Cannes 2024

Indian filmmaker Chidananda S Naik’s ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ received the 1st prize of La Cinef for Best Short at Cannes 2024. The La Cinef awards were announced on May 23.

Mansi Maheshwari’s ‘Bunnyhood’ won the third prize in the same category. Although ‘Bunnyhood’ is a UK film, Mansi is an Indian from Meerut.

FTII student Chidananda S Naik’s ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ won the first prize amongst 17 other films. The selection consisted of 18 films by film students from 2,263 applicants from 555 film schools across the globe.

‘Sunflowers were…’ is a 16-minute short film elaborating the chaos at a village when an elderly woman steals a rooster. To bring back the rooster, a prophecy made and the woman’s family is sent into exile.

Mansi Maheshwari made ‘Bunnyhood’ as part of her graduation project at the National Film Television School (NFTS) in London.

The second prize was shared by Columbia University’s ‘Our The Window Through The Wall’ by Asya Segalovich and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki’s ‘The Chaos She Left Behind’ by Nikos Kolioukos.