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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Two people killed as poultry vehicle rams into parked truck in Belagavi
Belagavi (Karnataka) (PTI): Two people were killed, and another was severely injured after a goods vehicle transporting poultry birds allegedly rammed into a stationary truck on a national highway in Belagavi in the early hours of Tuesday, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Wasim (28) and Mubarak (22), both natives of Shivamogga district, they said.
The driver of the vehicle, Basavaraj Eerappa Hanchinamani (37), suffered critical injuries and has been admitted to a hospital, police said.
According to police, the accident occurred when the driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle, allegedly due to drowsiness, and crashed into a truck parked along the highway.
The goods vehicle was en route from Kolhapur to Sorab in Shivamogga district, carrying poultry. Several chickens were also killed in the impact, a senior police officer said.
Police personnel from the Hirebagewadi Police Station visited the spot and conducted an inspection.
Injured people and the bodies of the deceased were shifted to a hospital, police added.
