The 77th Cannes Film Festival continues to hold increasing significance for India with each passing day. Chidananda S Naik’s directorial debut, ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’, captivates the Cannes panel, clinching the La Cinef award for Best Short Film. Meanwhile, Mansi Maheshwari’s animated film, ‘Bunnyhood’, secures the third prize in the La Cinef category.
Naik, a doctor-turned-director and an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, unveils his inaugural project—a 16-minute short film rooted in Karnataka’s local folklore. The narrative unfolds around a woman who pilfers a rooster, plunging the village into disarray. A prophecy ensues, compelling the old woman’s family into exile in a bid to retrieve the rooster.
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Reflecting on the film to Variety, Naik notes its challenging production: “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.”
Maheshwari, who claims the third prize, originates from Meerut and is an alumna of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi. She brings her film to life during her tenure at the UK’s National Film and Television School. Discussing her work with Variety, Maheshwari expresses her delight at animation’s inclusion in competition with live-action, emphasizing, “It’s all film.”
The category selects 18 shorts, including 14 live-action and 4 animated shorts, from 2,263 applicants representing students from 555 film schools worldwide. The Cannes Film Festival will award a cash prize of 15,000 euros for the first place. Second and third awards are 11,250 euros and 7,500 euros, respectively.
Columbia University’s ‘Out of The Window Through The Wall’, directed by Asya Segalovich, and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki’s ‘The Chaos She Left Behind’, created by Nikos Kolioukos, jointly receive the second prize.