India’s presence in the official selection at the 79th Cannes Film Festival this year comes not through a feature film, but via a student short from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. Parchaave Massiah Raatan De (Shadows of the Moonless Nights), directed by FTII student Mehar Malhotra, has been selected for the prestigious La Cinef section, Cannes’ competitive programme dedicated to emerging filmmakers from film schools around the world.
The 24-minute Punjabi-language short is among just 19 films chosen globally for La Cinef this year, selected from approximately 2,750 submissions. The section, widely regarded as a launchpad for new cinematic voices, features 14 live-action and five animated films from film schools across continents.
Directed by Malhotra, a student of FTII’s Direction and Screenplay Writing programme, the film reportedly follows a factory worker struggling through sleepless nights in the city, exploring labour, silence and emotional exhaustion through an intimate lens. The selection marks a significant achievement not only for the filmmaker but also for FTII, which has steadily strengthened its presence at Cannes in recent years.
The institute arrives at this year’s festival with recent momentum behind it. In 2024, FTII student filmmaker Chidananda S. Naik made history when his Kannada short Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know won first prize in La Cinef, becoming the first Indian film to receive the honour. That win later helped the film qualify for Oscar consideration in the live-action short category.
For Indian independent cinema, the selection continues an encouraging trend: while mainstream Indian features remain largely absent from Cannes’ official slate, student and independent filmmakers are increasingly finding recognition through the festival’s parallel and talent-focused sections. If La Cinef has historically functioned as an incubator for future auteurs, FTII’s latest entrant suggests India’s next cinematic voices may already be arriving on the global stage.
Why it matters: Cannes’ La Cinef has launched several internationally recognised filmmakers. For India, repeated selections from FTII indicate a growing ecosystem of formally adventurous cinema emerging outside the commercial mainstream.
