As the Boy is peering through his telescope at the eclipse, the Sunflower, able to see the Moon itself and not a reflection of it for the first time, turns its two leaves inward, forming the shape of a heart as revealed by the shadow it casts, in a declaration of love.

"[1] In 2005, executive producer Marco Savini founded the BigRock School Institute of Magic Technologies,[5] the first training centre in visual effects in Italy,[7] housed in a renovated farmhouse in Ca 'Tron, in the Roncade countryside of the Veneto region,[3][5] where filmmaker Antonio Padovan grew up before moving to New York City where he is based.

[9] The Little Sunflower that Fell in Love with the Moon was produced as one of two final thesis projects in the master's in computer graphics of eighty students who worked on it over a period of six weeks[2][3] out of their intensive six-month course.

[7] Padovan "took care of the first steps of the project" and personally "set the cameras directly in the 3D scene," using HTC Vive technology courtesy of Stormborn Studio[10] (known primarily for their virtual reality games)[11] and the Master VR I group.

Many of the eighty students had more than one task to perform for the film, and some, like Chiara Piseddu, were involved at several stages:[D]uring the first weeks of the thesis I was in the 3D Modelling group...

[14] While there is no dialogue in the short, the film features an original score composed by Filippo Zattini and performed in collaboration with the Ariggo Pedrollo Conservatory of Music.

An advance private screening of the thesis film for the BigRock students and their families on their graduation day was arranged at The Space Cinema [it] in Silea, the occasion marked with a red carpet, photocall and a golden statuette for award winners called "BigOscar", in a parodic reference to Hollywood's Oscars, on 26 February 2016.