Cannes 2024: 'Sunflowers Were The First Ones To Know' By India's Chidananda S Naik Wins La Cinef First Prize

At the 77th Cannes Film Festival, ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ by Chidananda S Naik (FTII – India) clinched the top prize of La Cinef for the Best Short Film on Thursday, marking a significant victory for the country.

The director told Variety that the film was “challenging to shoot”, further adding, “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 filmmaker created the film upon completing his one-year course in the television wing of the Film and Television Institute of India. The 16-minute film is inspired by a Kannada folk tale, which depicts an old woman stealing a rooster, and casting her village into eternal darkness. Notably, the Film Festival granted a €15,000 award to the first prize winner.

The Short Films and La Cinef Jury, led by Lubna Azabal and including Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Paolo Moretti, Claudine Nougaret, and Vladimir Perišić, bestowed the 2024 La Cinef Prizes during a ceremony held in the Buñuel Theatre. Following the awards ceremony, the winning films were screened to the seated audience. Only a total of 18 student films were meticulously selected from a pool of 2,263 submissions from 555 schools worldwide.

The joint second prize went to ‘The Chaos She Left Behind’ by Nikos Kolioukos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Greece) and ‘Out the Window through the Wall’ by Asya Segalovich (Columbia University – U.S). The third prize went to ‘Bunnyhood’ by Mansi Maheshwari (NFTS – United Kingdom).

The other films, which “reflected the geographic mobility of film students,” included ‘Crow Man’ by Yohann Abdelnour (ALBA – Lebanon), ‘Banished Love’ by Xiwen Cong (Beijing Film Academy – China), ‘It’ll Pass’ by Dovydas Drakšas (London Film School – United Kingdom), ‘Echoes’ by Robinson Drossos (ENSAD – France), ‘Us and Them’ by Nicolas Dumaret (La Fémis – France), ‘Terminal’ by East Elliott (NYU – U.S.) ‘Elevation’ by Gabriel Esdras (Universidad de Guadalajara – Mexico), ‘In Spirito’ by Nicolò Folin (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Italy), ‘The Deer’s Tooth’ by Saif Hammash (Dar Al-Kalima University – Palestine), ‘Weeds’ by Pola Kazak (FAMO – Czech Republic), ‘Forest of Echoes’ by Yoori Lim (Korea National University of Arts – South Korea), ‘Withered Blossoms’ by Lionel Seah (AFTRS – Australia), ‘Three’ by Amie Song (Columbia University – U.S.) and ‘It’s Not Time for Pop’ by Amit Vaknin (Tel Aviv University – Israel).

The four awarded films will be screened later at the Cinéma du Panthéon on June 3 and at the MK2 Quai de Seine on June 4.