A few minutes ago section organizers released the video with Charles Tesson, Semaine Artistic Director, announcing this year selection with films that could be strange/weird -as usual- but to my surprise there are some films that were in my long list and never imagined will end up in the Critics' Week.In total, 1,750 shorts and 1,000 features were submitted for consideration. Among the 11 feature films in the selection, 9 are first flms and 2 are second films.
While Latin American cinema is not particularly well-represented in the Official Selection, the Critics' Week has two films from the region (Argentina and Colombia) and the same happens with Africa, with la Semaine having one co production from Qatar. Still, la Semaine selection has a strong French flavor, which of course I do NOT mind at all, even when here there are some French films with "unusual" style that I wonder if I ever will watch (lol).
As always I get lost reading about all films but to speed up the post here are the seven (7) films in the Selection of 1st or 2nd films.
Dégradé, Arab et Tarzan Nasser, Palestine, France and Qatar
Krisha, Trey Edward Shults, USA
La Tierra y la sombra (Land and Shade), César Augusto Acevedo, Colombia, France, Netherlands, Chile and Brazil
Mediterranea, Jonas Carpignano, Italy, France, USA and Germany
Ni le ciel, ni la terre (The Wakhan Front), Clement Cogitore, France and Belgium
Paulina, Santiago Mitre, Argentina, Brasil and France
Sleeping Giant, Andrew Cividino, Canada
Special Screenings
Opening Night: Les Anarchistes, Elie Wajeman, France
Closing Night: La Vie en grand (Learn by Heart), Mathieu Vadepied, France
차이나타운 Chainatawoon (Coin Locker Girl - aka Chinatown), Han Jun-hee, South Korea
Les Deux amis, Louis Garrel, France
Short and Medium-Length Films
Alles Wird Gut (Everything will be Okay), Patrick Vollrath, Germany
Command Action, João Paulo Miranda, Brazil
La Fin du dragon (The Dragon's Demise), Marina Diaby, France
The Fox Exploits the Tiger's Might, Lucky Kuswandi, Indonesia
Love Comes Later, Sonejuhi Sinha, USA
Jeunesse des Loups-Garous (Monsters Turn Into Lovers), Yann Delattre, France
Pojkarna (Boys), Isabella Carbonell, Sweden
Ramona, Andrei Cretulescu, Romania
Too Cool For School, Kevin Phillips, USA
Varicella, Fulvio Risuleo, Italy
Jury of the Grand Prize, Visionary Award and Discovery Prize
President: Ronit Elkabetz, director, screenwriter and actress, Israel
Katell Quillévéré, screenwriter and director, France
Peter Suschitzky, director of photography, UK
Andréa Picard, Toronto Festival programmer, Canada
Boyd van Hoeij, cinema journalist, Netherlands
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 new program NEXT STEP, a training and supporting workshop which sets the path to feature film.
As a reminder, ALL feature films in the main selection are eligible to compete for the Camera d'Or. Will be checking for info and trailers for all feature and short films, will post link as soon as is done.
Check the video with the announcement, it's in French with English subtitles.