A 24-minute short by FTII student Mehar Malhotra, Shadows of the Moonless Nights, has been selected for the La Cinef competitive strand at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. La Cinef spotlights fiction and animation from film schools; this year’s lineup includes 14 live-action and five animated shorts.
Organisers said they reviewed 2,750 entries from film schools across the globe. The chosen programmes feature films directed by 12 women and nine men, representing 15 countries on four continents. Malhotra’s film will compete for three La Cinef prizes that a jury will award on May 21 at the Buñuel Theatre.
Malhotra, who studies direction and screenplay writing at the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India, wrote and directed the primarily Punjabi-language film, titled Parchave Masseah Rataan De. The official logline on Letterboxd describes the story of Rajan, a weary factory worker who endures gruelling shifts and a volatile home life while drifting through sleepless city nights in search of rest that never seems to come.
The cast includes Prayrak Mehta, Nikita Grover and Himanshu Kohli. The crew credits list Diggant Surti as cinematographer, Rashmi Kushwaha as production designer, Shreyas Bhopi as editor, Sai Sanjay as sound designer/recorder/mixer and Sudin as music composer.
Malhotra marked the selection on her Instagram Stories, writing: “Some news! Humbled and honoured.”
