Mysuru filmmaker Chidananda S Naik bags Cannes La Cinef first prize
Cannes: In a major triumph for India at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, Chidananda S Naik's Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know... has won the first prize of La Cinef here.
The Mysuru doctor-turned filmmaker made the film at the end of his one-year course in the television wing of Pune's Film and Television Institute of India.
Sunflowers... is based on Kannada folk tale about an old woman who steals a rooster. As a result of her action, the sun stops rising in the village.
The third prize of the La Cinef competition on Thursday went to India-born Mansi Maheshwari's animation film Bunnyhood.
Maheshwari, born in from Meerut and an ex-student of NIFT Delhi, made the film as a student of UK's National Film and Television School.
The second prize was shared by Out of the Widow Through the Wall, directed by Columbia University's Asya Segalovich, and 'The Chaos She Left Behind'. made by Nikos Kolioukos of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Cannes Film Festival awards a 15000 Euro grant for the first prize winner, 11,250 euros for second prize and 7,500 euros for the third prize.
The awarded films will be screened at the Cinema du Pantheon on June 3 and at the MK2 Quai de Seine on June 4.
The first prize for Naik is India's second in five years. In 2020, Ashmita Guha Neogi, also from FTII, won the award for her film CatDog.
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Navdeep Singh's silver upgraded to gold in men's javelin throw F41 at Paralympics
Paris, Sep 7: India's Navdeep Singh's silver medal was upgraded to gold after Iran's Beit Sayah Sadegh was disqualified following a dramatic men's javelin throw F41 final at the Paris Paralympics on Saturday.
This is India's first-ever gold medal in the men's javelin F41 category.
Starting the competition with a foul, the 23-year-old para-athlete from Haryana, who had finished fourth at the Tokyo Games three years ago, came up with a throw of 46.39 metres in his second attempt, propelling him to the second place. But it was his third throw that electrified the stadium.
With a monstrous throw of 47.32 metres, Navdeep shattered the Paralympic record and surged into lead, only for Sadegh to better the Indian's mark and clinch the gold with a record-breaking effort of 47.64 metres in his fifth attempt.
However, the Iranian was disqualified some time after the end of the final, leading to the Indian athlete taking the top spot.
The F41 category is for athletes, who are of short stature.
