Will not deny that I’m completely surprised that La Semaine de la Critique decided to do their closing ceremony today, Thursday, May 19 as usually the ceremony is Friday before the festival closes.
As a matter of fact went back to the schedule and (lol) yes, the closing ceremony was scheduled for today at 20:45 local time.
There are three awards given by the jury and another three given by the event partners, so here there are the six awards that were announced a few minutes ago via twitter.
Winners are in *BLUE. To check winners at official site go here.
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4/18/16
A few minutes ago organizers released the video with Charles Tesson, Artistic Director, revealing the selection to journalist and film critic Charlotte Lipinska and the rest of the world and perhaps the biggest surprise for me is the total absence of Latin American cinema, except for a short film by a previous Critics’ Week participant.
As we know this year La Semaine de la Critique will celebrate its 55th edition by placing spotlight on the films and talents discovered since its 50th anniversary, so their event logo uses the 50+5 iconography to represent the celebration. There are some posters that have appeared during the weeks before the selection announcement, which will include them at the end of this post. Also as a 50+5 celebration, the jury is composed by 5 directors discovered by the Critics’ Week during these past 5 years.
Charless Tesson shared that this year 1,500 shorts and 1,100 feature films were received. With seventeen (17) countries represented, the selection includes 10 features plus 15 short medium-length films. Six (6) feature films are film debuts -compete for the Camera d’Or- and four (4) are second films.
My spontaneous reaction to the selection is of amazement as from the seven films, six are French co productions -which obviously pleases me but know to tame my enthusiasm as this is La Semaine and always has weird/strange films. Most interesting to find that most films in the competition come from being projects in film festivals, including the Cinefondation, Berlin, Rotterdam, Doha. Worth mentioning are the three short films that will be screened in the closing night as are done by three well-known actresses with their directorial debut, they are: Laetitia Casta, Sandrine Kiberlain and Chloë Sévigny.
As every year there are seven (7) first or second very particular feature films in Cannes oldest parallel section competition, all competing for the Awards given by the jury, Grand Prize and Visionary Award. Also in the selection 3 feature films in Special Screenings plus 10 short and medium-length films in Competition and 5 short and medium-legth films in Special Screening.
Feature Films
(*) A Yellow Bird, K. Rajagopal, Singapore and France
*(*) Albüm, Mehmet Can Mertoğlu , France, Romania and Turkey France 4 Visionary Award Winner*Diamond Island, Davy Chou, Cambodia, France and Germany SACD Award Winner
(*) Grave (Raw), Julia Ducournau, France and Belgium
*Mimosas, Oliver Laxe, Spain, Morocco, France and Qatar Nespresso Grand Prize Winner
*(*) שבוע ויום Shavua ve Yom (One Week and a Day), Asaph Polonsky, Israel GAN Foundation Award for Distribution Winner
(*) ربيع Tramontane, Vatche Boulghourjian, Lebanon and France
Special Screenings
Opening Night: Victoria (In Bed with Victoria), Justine Triet, France
(*) Apnée, Jean-Christophe Murisse, France
I tempi felici verranno presto (Happy Times Will Come Soon), Alessandro Comodin, Italy and France
(*) Compete for the Camera d’Or
Short Films
Short and Medium-Length Films
Arnie, Rina B. Tsou, Taiwan and Philippines, 24′
Ascensão, Pedro Peralta, Portugal, 18′
Campo de Víboras, Cristèle Alves Meira, Portugal and France, 20′
*L’Enfance d’Un Chef (Birth of a Leader), Antoine de Bary, France, 15′ Canal+ Award for Short Film Winner
Le Soldat Vierge (The Virigin Soldier), Erwan Le Duc, France. 39′
Limbo, Kostantina Kotzamani, Greece and France, 30′
O Delírio é a redenção dos aflitos (Delusion is Redemption to Those in Distress), Fellipe Fernandes, Brazil,21′
Oh What a Wonderful Feeling, François Jaros, Canada, 15′
*Prenjak (In the Year of Monkey), Wregas Bhanuteja, Indonesia, 13′ Leica Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film Winner
Superbia, Luca Tóth, Hungary, 15′
Short Films in Special Screenings
50+5 Special Screenings
Los Pasos del Agua, César Augusto Acevedo, Colombia, 12′
Myomano Shel Tzalam Hatonot (From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer), Nadav Lapid, Israel, 40′
Closing Night:
Bonne Figure (Smile), Sandrine Kiberlain, France, 13′
En Moi, Laetitia Casta, France, 26′
Kitty, Chloë Sevigny, USA, 14′
Invitation to the Morelia International Film Festival
Selection of 4 short films selected to the 13th edition of the Morelia International Film Festival
El Buzo, Esteban Arrangoiz, Mexico, 16′
Isabel Im Winter, Laura Baumeister de Montis and Teresa Kuhn, Mexico, 6′
Mil Capas, Tess Anastasia Fernández, Mexico, 18′
Rebote, Nuria Menchaca, Mexico, 20′
Jury of the Grand Prize, Visionary Award and Discovery Prize
President: Valérie Donzelli, director, writer and actress, France
Alice Winocour, director, writer and actress, France
Nadav Lapid, director, writer and editor, Israel
David Robert Mitchell, director, writer, producer, USA
Santiago Mitre, director, writer and actor, Argentina
To read info about each film go to official site here, but will have to wait until links are activated as of today films are just listed.
Check available trailer and info @MOC
La Semaine de la Critique is a hub for emerging directors and it will continue to accompany the 10 short film talents by offering them to take part in the NEXT STEP program, which is a training and supporting workshop to set the path to a feature films.
Video with Charles Tesson announcing the selection (French with English subtitles)
50+5 Looking back at 5 Years of Discoveries
