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 son 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 the 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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