As we eagerly await the results of Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light at the Palme d’Or ceremony on May 25, we celebrate the success of two Indian films at Cannes 2024. Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know and Bunnyhood won first and third prizes, respectively, in the La Cinef Selection.

In addition to All We Imagine as Light, other Indian films that premiered at Cannes 2024 include British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, starring Shahana Goswami; Shyam Benegal’s Manthan, the 1976 National Film Award winner for Best Feature Film in Hindi; Sister Midnight, directed by Karan Kandhari and starring Radhika Apte; In Retreat, directed by Syed Maisam Ali Shah; The Shameless, directed by Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov but set in India and Nepal; and Kooki, a Hindi film from Assam directed by Pranab J. Deka.

Filmmaker SS Rajamouli congratulated the team of Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know for winning the La Cinef prize at Cannes 2024. The RRR director praised the team for their achievement at the prestigious film festival.

FTII student Chidananda S Naik's Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know won first prize among 17 other films, selected from 2,263 applicants from 555 film schools worldwide. SS Rajamouli shared his excitement on X, writing, “Indian talent breaching boundaries. Happy to hear that @Chidanandasnaik’s ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ has won the La Cinef Award for Best Short Film at Cannes 2024! Kudos to the youngsters.”

Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know is a 16-minute short film about a village thrown into chaos when an elderly woman steals a rooster. A prophecy is invoked to bring the rooster back, leading to the old lady’s family being exiled. The film features cinematography by Suraj Thakur, editing by Manoj V, and sound by Abhishek Kadam.

Indian talent breaching boundaries… Happy to hear that @Chidanandasnaik’s ‘Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know’ has won the La Cinef Award for Best Short Film at Cannes 2024!
Kudos to the youngsters 👏🏻👏🏻

— rajamouli ss (@ssrajamouli) May 24, 2024