Cannes 2024 Winners: Chidananda Naik’s Sunflowers Were The First Ones To Know Receives the La Cinef Award for Best Short

Chidananda Naik, FTII student from India received the La Cinef Award for Best Short at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2024 for his film Sunflowers Were The First Ones to Know.

In an interview with Film Companion, Naik revealed how he developed the idea behind the story which is a popular folklore in Karnataka, he said, “I was having the idea since my childhood. And when we were discussing about films and when we were brainstorming and I told this to my team mates, they liked the idea but they never heard this tale and I was surprised and I start asking everyone out of Karnataka like have you heard this story and they are like we have never heard about this and if you tell this in Karnataka everyone knows, even a small kid knows the story.”

La Cinef consisted of 18 student films, chosen out of 2263 entries coming from 555 film schools around the globe, Naik’s film won the first prize.