Pune: Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) alumnus Chidanand Naik's short film 'Sunflowers Wear the First Once to Know' has been selected for the 97th Academy Awards.

The short film was shortlisted for the "Live Action Short Film" category at the 2025 Academy Awards.

Interestingly, the short film won the La Cinef Award for Best Short Film at the prestigious 77th Cannes Film Festival in May.

Now that the short film has been selected for the Oscar award as well, FTII has lost its pride.

The director of the short film, Chidanand Naik, is a 2022-year-old student of FTII. He was accompanied by Suraj Thakur, who shot the short film, Manoj V and Abhishek Kadam, who designed the sound, is also an alumnus of FTII. Chidanand had produced the short film as part of the curriculum when he was a student at FTII.

The short film is based on a Kannada folk tale about an old woman. The short film had earlier won the best Indian short film award at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Bangalore International Short Film Festival.

The short film will now compete with world-class short films at the Oscars. Efforts will be made through more screenings, press conferences, Q&A etc. of the short film to reach the audience and more representatives of the academy around the world.