Yesterday organizers had their award ceremony and closed a quiet year with not much activities, low social media coverage, low media coverage (it increased for the awards), the official website not working, some info in the partners sites, and some info in the facebook page. Hope that organizers collect themselves and prepare better for next year, hopefully with partners that help them to consolidate the award.
The winner of the feature film is a documentary about Thérèse Clerc directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, who hast top documentary credentials in my book as his 2013 Bambi is mesmerizing. Here is Les Vies de Thérèse synopsis from la Quinzaine official site.
Thérèse Clerc is one of the great figures of militantism. From the struggle to legalize abortion to the fight for equal rights of men and women and the battle for gay rights, she’s been on the front lines of all of them. She has just learned that she has an incurable disease and has decided to take a last look back over her life, a tender and lucid look at the battles and the love that went with them.
Documentary is must be seen for me as still recall Thérèse Clerc in the other Lifshitz documentary, Les Invisibles and yes, I’m curious to learn more about her life. Thérèse Clerc died in February 16, 2016, she was 88-years-old.
Here is a copy and paste from the jury statement that basically says the award was given to the director and his film, but also to the main character.
En récompensant Les vies de Thérèse c’est un double prix que s’est offert le jury. Une palme pour Sébastien Lifshitz et son film émouvant qui sait nous raconter une femme et ses combats, mêlant vie privée et engagement politique, balayant les époques, questionnant la sexualité, bousculant les rôles que la société nous impose. Le réalisateur pose un regard tendre sur cette femme, un regard amoureux, plein de vénération mais qui offre au spectateur la juste distance que nécessite la représentation de cette femme combattante au seuil de la mort.
Et c’est aussi une palme pour Thérèse Clerc, décédée le 16 février 2016, pour cette femme qui a su, en traçant son propre chemin, nous ouvrir la voie, nous rappelant sans cesse combien notre désir et notre sexualité peuvent et doivent nourrir notre combat pour une société plus juste.
Le jury se réjouit en outre d’avoir ainsi ajouté le premier documentaire à la liste déjà riche des films primés par la Queer Palm à Cannes.
Worth to mention that in the short history of the Queer Palm, this is the first time the award is given to a documentary.
In the short film category the award goes to Gabber Lover by Anna Cazenave Cambet and this is a copy and paste of the jury statement
Cette année, les films du festival ont offert une grande diversité de personnages féminins, forts, indépendants, différents, résistants. Et ils nous ont ainsi beaucoup parlé du désir féminin, si longtemps nié et réprimé.
Ces films, peut-être parce que c’était la 69e édition du festival, nous ont aussi beaucoup montré de cunnilingus et le jury de la Queer Palm à l’unanimité tient à saluer les réalisatrices et réalisateurs qui ainsi contribuent à la promotion d’une pratique sexuelle nettement plus agréable à regarder que les rapides et franchement machistes coïts auxquels la sexualité des personnages de cinéma s’est longtemps cantonnée. Les beaux personnages féminins du festival nous ont rappelé qu’il fallait toujours faire face et souvent affronter les autres, la société et soi-même pour se construire et façonner autant que faire se peut notre propre destin.
Les films que le jury, après une discussion nourrie, a décidé, à l’unanimité, de distinguer sont ainsi deux films d’espoir et d’amour qui montrent des femmes, l’une adolescente, l’autre au seuil de la mort, qui se confrontent à l’existence et veulent rester maîtresses de leur propre vie.
La Queer Palm du court-métrage a donc été attribuée à Gabber lover d’Anna Cazenave-Cambet.
Gabber lover est un film limpide à la réalisation maîtrisée, un film sensible surtout dans lequel la réalisatrice narre d’une façon aiguë et fine la confrontation de son personnage à sa situation intime comme sociale. Un film de coming out où l’on apprend à faire face à son désir, à lui donner enfin libre court. Gabber lover est un film dont nous ne doutons qu’il apportera un message libérateur aux jeunes spectateurs.
In summary, the Queer Palm jury recognized that this year the films in Cannes offer a big diversity of female characters, strong, independent, different, resilient. Then comes a funny message between the relation of the number 69 (which is this year fest edition) and lesbian scenes in some of the films the jury saw (lol). But they went back to be serious to say that this year the jury gave the awards to films about women, one a teenager and the other a woman near death, which I find surprising as does not happen often in LGBT festivals or any festival that gives LGBT awards. Bravo.
The short film by Anna Cazenave-Cambet has the following synopsis in the Cinéfondation site.
Nérac in the early 2000s. Laurie and Mila (13) dance on Gabber music, on the shores of a remote lake. Mila is in love with Laurie and she wants to tell her.
If you wish to check the award facebook page go here. Winners are below in *BLUE.
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5/13/16
Yesterday organizers announced the films that this year are competing for the LGBT award given in the Festival de Cannes and the announcement was made in a magazine called Clap and to our enjoyment, the magazine has some articles about lgbt films from 2015, with a special mention to Sean Baker’s Tangerine that the call “rare, unique, work of art celebrating creative, humane and artistic freedom”. Suggest you read the articles available in French and English.
Among the activities surrounding the award we find the Queer Film Market that will be held on Tuesday, May 17 from 2 to 5 pm; also night “activities” happen at the official queer and open minded club in Cannes, Le Vertigo, open from May 11 to 22, from midnight to dawn.
There are 17 films in the selection, twelve (12) are feature films and five (5) are short films
Feature Films
Official Selection
Competition
Agassi (The Handmaiden), Park Chan-wook, Korea (L)
Aquarius, Klebler Mendonca Filho, Brazil and France
Rester Vertical, Alain Guiraudie, France
The Neon Demon, Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark, France and USA
Special Screenings
Le Cancre, Paul Vecchiali, France
Un Certain Regard
La Danseuse (The Dancer), Stéphanie Di Giusto, France (L)
Quinzaine des Réalisateurs
Divines, Houda Benyamina,
Fiore, Claudio Giovannesi, Italy and France
*Les Vies de Thérèse, Sebastien Lifshitz, France
Semaine de la Critique
Competition
Grave (Raw), Julia Ducournau, France and Belgium
Special Screenings
Apnée, Jean-Christophe Murisse, France
ACID
Willy 1er, Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma, Marielle Gautier and Hugo P. Thomas, France
Short Films
Cinéfondation Selection
In the Hills, Hamid Ahmadi, UK
*Gabber Lover, Anna Cazenave Cambet, France
Semaine de la Critique
Le Soldat Vierge (The Virigin Soldier), Erwan Le Duc, France
Prenjak (In the Year of Monkey), Wregas Bhanuteja, Indonesia
Superbia, Luca Tóth, Hungary
Jury
Presidents: Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, directors, France
Émilie Brisavoine, Director, France
Joao Federici, Festival Director, Brazil
Marie Sauvion, Journalist, France
If you wish to check more about this award go to the award facebook page here.
Check the magazine, Enjoy!!!
