This Film Has Qualified For The Oscars!

Sunflowers
Were
the
First
Ones
to
Know,
an
award-winning
Kannada
short
film
by
Film
and
Television
Institute
of
India
students,
has
qualified
for
the
2025
Oscars
in
the
live
action
short
film
category,
the
FTII
said
on
Monday.

In
May,

Sunflowers
earned
the
first
prize
under
the
La
Cinef
section
at
this
year’s
Cannes
Film
Festival,
dedicated
to
showcasing
film
school
fiction
or
animated
films.

The
short
is
directed
by
Chidanand
S
Naik
and
has
cinematography
by
Suraj
Thakur,
editing
by
Manoj
V
and
sound
by
Abhishek
Kadam.
It
was
produced
by
FTII
as
part
of
the
students’
final-year
exercise.

‘I
have
aspired
to
tell
this
story
for
as
long
as
I
can
remember.
Our
goal
was
to
recreate
the
experience
of
not
merely
hearing
these
stories
but
of
genuinely
living
them;
an
experience
I
hope
resonates
with
audiences
around
the
globe,’
Naik
said
in
a
statement.

Based
on
a
Kannada
folk
tale,

Sunflowers
presents
the
story
of
an
elderly
woman
who
steals
the
village’s
rooster
that
throws
the
community
into
disarray.
To
bring
the
rooster
back,
a
prophecy
is
invoked,
sending
the
old
lady’s
family
into
exile.