This FTII Student’s Short Film Just Made It to the Prestigious Cannes Film Festival!

Payal Kapadia, a film direction course student from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune has just made history for her institute. Thanks to her short film, Afternoon Clouds, for the first time, a movie made by a student from FTII will be screened at Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival as it is more popularly known).

This would mark the first time a film from FTII has been picked up for the Cinefondation category. Bhupendra Kainthola, the director of FTII was in the best of spirits while speaking to The Hindu, noting, “It’s the first time we participated and we struck gold.”

The 13-minute short film tells the heartrending tale of a 70-year-old widow named Kaki, who lives along with her Nepali maid Malti in Mumbai.

The events of the film take place over the course of one afternoon, when Kaki meets a young man from her hometown and deals with bad dreams.

Image source: screenshot

The inspiration for the film came from Payal’s own grandmother who also lived alone with a Nepali maid and it ends up exploring the meaning of love and relationships. The film, according to Payal, was actually shot as part of a dialogue exercise!

From a total of 2,600 entries that were submitted in this category, Afternoon Clouds is one of 14 fiction films and two animated films, to have been selected to participate. Last year, a film by a student from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, was selected under the same category.

You may also like: From Dropping out of BITS Pilani to Making Oscar History, How Ishan Shukla Followed His Passion

The film festival will take place between May 17 and May 28 of this year and during that period the winners will be adjudged. Starring Usha Naik and Trimala Adhikari, the film has been shot entirely on film, rather than on digital camera and was shot entirely indoors.

The trailer for the film can be viewed below

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