“Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know” – A film by FTII student Chidanand S Naik (Director) and his team shines at Cannes
Chidanand S Naik – One of the ‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’ and FTII Student of 2022 Batch
FTII Alumni Santosh Sivan, Payal Kapadia, Maisam Ali Among Others, Shine at Cannes
“SUNFLOWERS WERE THE FIRST ONES TO KNOW,” a course-end film by Chidanand Naik, a student of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), received the Cannes’ La Cinef Award for Best Short at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in France. The winner was officially announced on 23rd May 2024 at the festival, where student director Shri Chidanand Naik received the award.
The film was directed by Chidananda S Naik, shot by Suraj Thakur, edited by Manoj V, and sound was managed by Abhishek Kadam.
This is a historic moment for Indian cinema. Indian films have been receiving accolades on the international stage, and FTII has performed remarkably well at Cannes with its students’ films being screened at the festival in the past few years. This recognition comes four years after another FTII student film, “CATDOG,” won an award at the 73rd Cannes. The 77th Cannes Film Festival witnessed multiple entries from India in different categories. Many FTII alumni, such as Payal Kapadia, Maisam Ali, Santosh Sivan, Chidanand S Naik, and his team received recognition at this year’s Cannes.
“SUNFLOWERS WERE THE FIRST ONES TO KNOW” tells the story of an elderly woman who steals the village’s rooster, causing community disarray. To bring the rooster back, a prophecy is invoked, sending the old lady’s family into exile.
This FTII film is a production of the TV Wing’s one-year program, where four students from different disciplines—Direction, Electronic Cinematography, Editing, and Sound—worked together on a year-end coordinated exercise. The film was directed by Chidananda S Naik, shot by Suraj Thakur, edited by Manoj V, and sound by Abhishek Kadam. These students worked on the film as part of their final year coordinated exercise and graduated from FTII in 2023.
This is the first time a film by a student from FTII’s one-year Television course has been selected and won at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Before joining FTII in 2022, Chidanand S Naik was also selected as one of the 75 Creative Minds at the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), an initiative of the Ministry of I&B to recognize and support budding young artists in the field of cinema.
Shri R. Madhavan, President of FTII, congratulated the entire student unit of the film. He said, “Congratulations to Mr. Chidananda Naik and the entire team of ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ for this very prestigious honor. May this be just the beginning of an illustrious career with many more extraordinary recognitions and love. Also, a big cheer and respect to all staff and administration of FTII for churning out such world-class talent.”
‘La Cinef’ is an official section of the festival aimed at encouraging new talents and recognizing films from film schools across the world. The film was among 18 shorts (14 live-action and 4 animated films) selected from a total of 2,263 films submitted by 555 film schools worldwide.
FTII’s unique pedagogy and focus on a practice-based co-learning approach to education in the field of cinema and television have resulted in the Institute’s students and alumni winning accolades at various national and international film festivals over the years. Receiving this prestigious award is a historical achievement for Indian cinema. The Film and Television Institute of India stands tall among the best film schools in the world and has made India proud today.
