48th Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Selection

A few minutes ago in Paris, la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Artistic Director, Edouard Waintrop, announced the films in the parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival run by the Société des réalisateurs de films (French Director's Guild) and I'm glad that some of the films I was looking forward to see in Cannes are in this section. Relief.

Waintrop regretted the passing of outstanding filmmaker and actress Ronit Elkabetz, R.I.P. The news hit me hard as she was very young, 51-years-old, and I highly enjoyed her particular performing style as well as her directing style in films she directed with her brother. I'm sad but know that she will live in her body-of-work.

Back to the selection, there are some snubs that puzzle me as was hoping for French cinema filmmakers Bertrand Bonello's Nocturama, Rebecca Zlotowski's Planeatarium and Katell Quillévéré's Répare les vivants; still glad Lafosse made it, as well as the last film by the late Solveig Anspach. Most interesting is the animated film by Claude Barras co-written by none other than Céline Sciamma and I'm extremely curious about Laura Poiras latest documentary but from all the selection the film that wish to watch the most is Neruda by Pablo Larrain.

As previously announced, this year’s Carrosse d’Or,awarded to a director from the international filmmaking community for the innovative qualities, courage and independent-mindedness of his or her work, goes to one of my favorite directors, outstanding master filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki.

Here are the 18 feature films and 11 short films.

Feature films

Opening Film: Fai bei sogni (Sweet Dreams), Marco Bellocchio, Italy and France
Closing Film: Dog Eat Dog, Paul Schrader, USA

Divines, Uda Benyamina, France
Fiore, Claudio Giovannesi, Italy and France
La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy), Paolo Virzì, Italy
L’economie du couple (After Love), Joachim Lafosse, France and Belgium
L’Effet aquatique (The Together Project), Solveig Anspach, France and Iceland
Les Vies de Thérèse, Sebastien Lifshitz, France (documentary)
Ma vie de courgette (My Life as a Zucchini), Claude Barras, Switzerland and France
Mean Dreams, Nathan Morlando, Canada
Mercenaire, Sacha Wolff, France
Neruda, Pablo Larrain, Argentina, Chile, Spain, USA and France
Poesía Sin Fin (Endless Poesy), Alejandro Jodorosky, Chile, Japan and France
Raman Raghav 2.0, Anurag Kashyap, India
Risk, Laura Poitras, Germany and USA
Tour de France, Rachid Djaïdani, France
Two Lovers and a Bear, Kim Nguyen, Canada
Wolf and Sheep, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Denmark, Sweden and France

Short films

Chasse Royale, Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, France
Decorado, Alberto Vázquez, Spain
Habat Shel Hakala, Tamar Rudoy, Israel
Happy Endu (Happy End), Jan Saska, Czech Republic, 6'
Hitchhiker, Jero Yun, South Korea, 20'
Import, Ena Sendijarevic, Netherlands
Kindil el Bahr, Damien Ounouri, Algeria
Léthé, Dea Kulumbegashvili, Georgia
Слушая Бетховена Listening to Beethoven, Garri Bardine, Russia
O Segredo De Abigail (Abigail), Isabel Penoni and Valentina Homem, Brazil
Zvir (The Beast), Miroslav Sikavica, Croatia, 14'

Seems the new site has been flooded with requests and was not prepared for the traffic, so it's hard to access it but the list at the official site is here.

This year, after Cannes, the films of the 48th Directors’ Fortnight will be shown in Paris, Marseille, Geneva, Rome, Milan, Florence and Brussels.

The Factory

After the Taipei Factory in 2013, the Nordic Factoryin 2014 and the Chile Factory in 2015 the Directors' Fortnight is glad to continue the adventure this coming year with the South Africa Factory. The Factory project aims at the emergence of new talents on the international scene, allowing young international directors to meet and create together.

The Directors' Fortnight is proud to showcase the result of these exchanges, four (4) 15 minutes short films, co-directed by 4 tandems of young directors.

Zee Ntuli (South Africa) and Isabelle Mayor (France/Switzerland)
Zamo Mkhwanazi (South Africa) and Alejandro Fadel (Argentina)
Sheetal Magan (South Africa) and Martín Morgenfeld (Argentina)
Samantha Nell (South Africa) and Michael Wahrman (Brazil)