2009 Cannes Shorts

I know that I don’t write here about short (or medium length) films, but I do watch many and often I find shorts that are excellent as are able to tell in a few minutes a complete compelling story with the most amazing production values, even when it’s clear that they didn’t had huge budgets. In a way with shorts is when filmmakers “learn” to be really creative in every sense of the word.

It’s impossible to list all the shorts that are in competition in the Cannes sections, but if you are interested in shorts I’m going to tell you the sections that have short and medium length films.

Official Selection

Update: To check the nine (9) Short films in the Official Competition please go to the bottom of the list that is here.

Cinéfondation

This is the competitive section of the Cannes Festival for films under 60 minutes. The official selection has not been posted yet at the site, but they have this year’s Jury and here it is.

John Boorman, President (Director/Writer/Producer – UK)
Bertrand Bonello (Director – France)
Ferid Boughedir (Director – Tunisia)
Leonor Silveira (Actress – Portugal)
Zhang Ziyi (Actress – China)

The jury will select winners from 15 to 20 short and medium length works from film schools all over the world and the films will be listed here soon.

Update: Today April 28th they announced the Official Selection with 17 short and medium length films; to check them go here.

Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

The 2009 Selection has 14 shorts that you can check here and when they post info about each feature film, they will also post info for each short.

Semaine de la Critique

Their selection also includes 7 shorts in competition and 7 shorts that are Special Screenings. This is the only section of the fest that has published info about all the films, including the short films and you can find the complete info here.

Since the presentation of this section talks more about shorts, I’m including here the video for those interested in watching.



Short Film Corner

A non-competitive “essential” rendez-vous for short filmmakers that is a professional area that works as a market. With shorts from allover the world this parallel section has a well-organized thematic program that you can check here.

Last year they had a competition from partner National Film Board of Canada that organized on www.onf.ca/cannes an online short film competition SPECIAL CANNES 2008. Ten short films were selected by Danny Lennon from all the registered shorts to the Short Film Corner. The online audience voted to determine their favorite short among the 10 finalists. The director of the winning short was granted a professional-quality DV-HD camera and a portable editing suite by the NFB. This year there is no information if this competition will happen again, but gives you an idea of the activities the section does that gives opportunity to a worldwide audience to see at least 10 shorts.

As long as I find more information about the shorts I’ll will update the post; especially if I find ways to watch some of them online.

Enjoy!