Shadows of the Moonless Nights, a student film from FTII, was chosen for the La Cinef segment of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

A Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) student’s short film, Shadows of the Moonless Nights, has been chosen for the 2026 Cannes Film Festival’s La Cinef Competitive competition. The 24-minute film, which was directed by Mehar Malhotra, is one of the segment’s 14 live-action and 5 animated shorts that highlight cartoon and film school fiction.

According to a statement from the Cannes Film Festival, 2,750 entries were submitted for this year’s event from film schools across the globe. It also stated that the chosen films represent 15 countries and 4 continents and are directed by 12 women and 9 men.

In a ceremony on May 21 at the Bunuel Theatre, a jury will present three La Cinef prizes to Malhotra’s film. Malhotra is enrolled in the esteemed Pune-based institute’s direction and screenplay writing program. Malhotra wrote and directed Shadows of the Moonless Nights, a film primarily in Punjabi. In Punjabi, it is called Parchave Masseah Rataan De.

According to the official logline featured on Letterboxd, the plot revolves around Rajan, a tired factory worker who puts up with demanding shifts and a turbulent family life, drifting through restless evenings in the city as he strives to recapture the rest that always seems just out of grasp.Actors Himanshu Kohli, Nikita Grover, and Prayrak Mehta are in it.

Cinematographer Diggant Surti, production designer Rashmi Kushwaha, editor Shreyas Bhopi, sound designer, recorder and mixer Sai Sanjay, and music composer Sudin are among the team members. Malhotra posted on her Instagram Stories to celebrate the movie’s selection. “I have some news! “Honored and humbled,” she wrote.