In a historic moment for Indian cinema, “Sunflowers were the first to know” -- a course-end film made by Chidanand Naik, a student of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII)  based on a Karnataka folklore -- has bagged the coveted  La Cinef Award at 77th Cannes Film Festival.

An announcement about “Sunflowers were the first to know” winning the coveted award was made at the Cannes Film Festival where the student Director Chidanand Naik received the award on Friday.

The award-winning film has been directed by Chidananda S Naik, who is a doctor-turned-filmmaker from Mysuru in Karnataka. It has been shot by Suraj Thakur and edited by Manoj V. Abhishek Kadam has provided sound to the film.

These students had worked on the film as part of their final year coordinated exercise and passed out from the FTII in 2023.

“Sunflowers were the first 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 a 1-year Television course of FTII 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 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.

‘La Cinef’ is an official section of the festival aimed at encouraging new talents and recognising films from film schools across the world.

The award-winning film was among 18 short films (14 live-action and 4 animated films) chosen from a total of 2,263 films submitted by 555 film schools all over the world.