57th Semaine de la Critique Award Winners

Yesterday, the Cannes parallel section had their award ceremony with top award going to a Franco-Brazilian-Portuguese comedy drama.

Check winners below in GREEN and at official press release here.

Most interesting is the availability of 500 FREE tickets to watch the 2018 short films selection via Festival Scope.   Starting today, May 17th and until May 27th IF you hurry, will be able to watch the shorts; but act fast as there are only 500 tickets and yes, they're sold out quite quickly.  Festival Scope site is here.

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4/19/18
A few days back organizers released the video with Charles Tesson, Semaine de la Critique Artistic Director and Charlotte Lipinska, journalist and film critic announcing the selection for the 2018 edition of the Critics' Week and there is no surprise when we find that -as always- selection is eclectic (and strange) but having high-profile actors in the selection, is quite unusual and yes, surprising.

Paul Dano's directing debut film has Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan as leads and is La Semaine opening film even when film premiered at 2018 Sundance; obviously section opening this year will generate lot's of buzz and press coverage due to the "celebrity" element.

Before going in depth into the selection let's review what has been happening in this Cannes parallel section.

The Poster

For this year's poster for La Semaine de la Critique, we are greeted by the rebellious stare of young French actress Noée Abita, who made her debut in Léa Mysius' Ava.

Her defiant innocence, captured by photographer Aurélie Lamachère, in collaboration with the agency les bons faiseurs, encapsulates the spirit of this new generation of filmmakers celebrated by this Cannes Festival section dedicated to the discovery of emerging talent.

Next Step 4th Session

Created in collaboration with the TorinoFilmLab and supported by the CNC and the Moulin d’Andé-CÉCI, Next Step is a program, consisting of a 5-day workshop held in France in December.

The aim of this project is to support the short film directors discovered by La Semaine de la Critique as they branch out into feature films. During the workshop, the filmmakers have the opportunity to discuss their projects with international experts and tutors, in order for them to receive advice on their scripts, to understand the reality of the industry and define an appropriate development strategy. Furthermore, a half-day workshop is dedicated to film music to encourage the participating directors to both better understand the work that goes into music composition for films and start thinking about the music for their feature film projects.

This year the directors of the Next Step 4th Session are Manon Coubia, Laura Ferrés, Moin Hussain, Sam Kuhn, Magali Magistry, Carlo Francisco Manatad, Sofía Quirós Ubeda, Matthew Rankin and Aleksandra Terpińska.

For the third year, Next Step will provide a session dedicated to film soundtracks organized in collaboration with the SACEM. The aim is to encourage participants to both better understand the work that goes into music composition for films and start thinking about the music for their feature film projects. six promising French composers have been selected through a national call to take part to this session.

These composers alongside the filmmakers taking part in Next Step will attend a masterclass given by composer Amine Bouhafa who composed the music of Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako (Cannes Film Festival 2014) and recently Beauty and the Dogs by Kaouther Ben Hania (Un Certain Regard 2017).

The six composers will then introduce themselves and talk about their work as musicians and composers to the nine filmmakers who take-part in Next Step. 

The Selection

This year organizers received 1,500 short films and 1.100 feature films.  As always features selection are 7 plus 4 more in Special Screenings for a total of 11 films where 7 are first and 4 second films.  The seven (7) first feature films will compete for the Camera d'Or award.

The short film selection comprises 10 films that will be supported by offering them the opportunity to be part of the Next Step program, a training and support workshop towards their first feature film.

Feature films competition clearly shows an improvement in representing women filmmakers as out of the seven (7) films four (4) are by female filmmakers.  Great. Not surprising when considering the 11 feature films in the selection percentage goes down as all four special screenings are by male filmmakers, sigh.

Female filmmakers are in BLUE.

Feature Films Competition

(*) Chris The Swiss, Anja Kofmel, Switzerland, Croatia, Germany and Finland (documentary)
(*) Diamantino, Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, Portugal, France and Brazil *WINNER of Grand Prix
(*) Egy Nap (One Day), Zsófia Szilágyi, Hungary
Fuga (Fugue), Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Poland Czech Republic and Sweden
Kona fer í stríð (Woman at War), Benedikt Erlingsson, Iceland, France and Ukraine *WINNER of SACD Award to writers Benedikt Erlingsson and Ólafur Egill Egilsson
(*) Sauvage, Camille Vidal-Naquet, France  *WINNER of Rising Star Award to Félix Maritaud
(*) Sir, Rohena Gera, India and France *WINNER of Gan Foundation Award for Distribution

Special Screenings
Opening Film: (*) Wildlife, Paul Dano, USA
Closing Filme:  Guy, Alex Lutz, France
Nos Batailles (Our Struggles), Guillaume Senez, France and Belgium
(*) Shéhérazade, Jean-Bernard Marlin, France

(*) Competing for the Camera d'Or

Short Films in Competition
Amor, Avenidas Novas, Duarte Coimbra, Portugal, 20'
Ektoras Malo: I teleftea mera tis chronias (Hector Malo - The Last Day of the Year), Jaqueline Lentzoou, Greece, 23' *WINNER of Discovery Prize
Mo-bun-shi-min (Exemplary Citizen), Kim Cheol-Hwi, South Korea, 12'
Pauline Asservie (Pauline Enslaved), Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, France, 24'
La Persistente, Camille Lugan, France, 22'
Rapaz (Raptor), Felipe Gálvez, Chile, 13'
Schächer, Flurin Giger, Switzerland, 29'
Tiikeri (The Tiger), Mikko Myllylahti, Finland, 10'
Un Jour de Mariage (A Wedding Day), Elias Belkeddar, Algeria and France, 15' *WINNER of Canal+ Award
Ya normalniy (Normal), Michael Borodin, Russia, 20'

Special Screenings
La Chute (The Fall), Boris Labbé, France, 14'
The Third Kind, Yorgos Zois, Greece and Croatia, 32'
Ultra Pulpe, Bertrand Mandico, France, 37'

The Jury
President: Joachim Trier, director, writer and producer, Norway
Chloë Sevigny, actress, writer, producer and director, USA
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, actor, Argentina
Eva Sangiorgi, director of the Viennale, Austria
Augustin Trapenard, journalist, France

Invitation - Morelia International Film Festival
Selection of 4 short films selected to the 15th edition of the Morelia International Film Festival
Aguas Tranquilas Aguas Profundas (In Deep Water), Miguel Labastida Gonzalez, Mexico 19'
Lo que no se dice bajo el sol (Under the Sun), Eduardo Esquivel, Mexico, 15'
Tierra de Brujas, Mar de Sirenas (Land of Witches, Sea of Mermaids), Delia Luna Couturier, Mexico, 10'
Vuelve a Mi (Back to Me), Daniela Najera Betancourt, Mexico, 20'

To check info about films at the official site go here.

The Video (in French)