Film and Television Institution of India (FTII), Pune, which has been in the news for all wrong reasons, from students’ strike to appointment of non-expert at its helm, has now got reason to cheer. A short film directed by an FTII student has made it to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival that is being held from May 17 to 28. This is the first time in the history of the premier film institute that a film by its students has been selected for the ace festival.

Afternoon Clouds directed by Payal Kapadia, a third year film direction course student of the 2012 Batch of FTII, has been selected for the Cinéfondation section of the forthcoming festivel. Gilles Jacob, President of Cinéfondation, has confirmed the selection and invited Payal Kapadia to screen her short film at Cannes.

To mark its 20th year, the Cinéfondation selection team selected 16 films (14 works of fiction and two animation films) from among 2,600 short films submitted by film schools from all over the world. Fourteen countries from three continents had sent their entries. Four of the films selected come from schools in India, including FTII.

Payal Kapadia

The three Cinéfondation prizes will be awarded at a ceremony preceding the screening of the prize-winning films on May 26 in the Bunuel Theatre at Cannes.

Afternoon Clouds is a film about Kaki, a 60-year old widow who lives with her Nepali maid Malati. The film is placed during one afternoon in their house where a flower blossoms in the balcony. Malati meets a boy from her hometown unexpectedly. In the meanwhile, men in the passage spray mosquito repellant smoke that gives Kaki bad dreams. This 13-minute short film features Usha Naik and Trimala Adhikari.

Bhupendra Kainthola, director, FTII, said, “This is the first time we have sent an entry for Cannes and it got selected. This is a great moment for the institute.”

Payal said, “I am happy that my film got selected for screening at Cannes. The fact that I was able to uphold the name of the institute is the icing on the cake.”