Thursday, April 21, 2022

61st Semaine de la Critique Selection


A few days back organizers announced via video on social media the Festival de Cannes parallel section lineup which always has unconventional films to say the least. Let's start with the graphic identity.

The Poster

From the section website: "On the poster of the current edition the characters of Chloé Mazlo’s film Skies of Lebanon are projected onto a body by the photographer Charlotte Abramow - something between a laterna magica and the good genie of Arabian Nights. Blending these two poetic, joyful worlds is a tribute to cinema, a love letter to filmmakers, to its audiences who find themselves spellbound, moved, surprised, puzzled, or unsettled… to all the believers who have it in their bones.

On a starry night, La Semaine de la Critique takes you on the wonderful adventure of first films, a journey of emotions and sensations. As the lights fade, the feature and short films that Ava Cahen, Artistic Director and her selection committees have traveled to world to unearth, will be revealed to you in this new edition dedicated to discoveries."

The Jury

La Semaine de la Critique, the parallel selection of the Festival de Cannes dedicated to first and second films, is proud to announce that the President of the 61st edition will be Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania. She will be supported by Ariane Labed, Benedikt Erlingsoon, Benoît Debie and hUh Moon yung.

President: Kaouther Ben Hania, director, Tunisia
Ariane Labed, actress and director, Greece and France
Benedikt Erlingsoon, director Iceland
Benoît Debie, cinematographer, Belgium
Huh Moon yung, Busan fest director, Korea

Besides the regular prizes, for the very first time will present the French Touch Prize of the Jury to one of the seven (7) feature films in the competition. As organizers claim: "This award aims to shine a light on an act of cinema that features creativity and boldness ... reveal the creative geniuses who are making the future of cinema."

This is the first edition with Ava Cahen as the section Artistic Director and besides her the Selection Committee for feature films included Miquel Escudero Diéguez, Marilou Duponchel, Bruno Icher, Pauline Mallet and Frédéric Mercier. To learn more about committee members and the selection committee for short films go official site here.

La Semaine will take place in Cannes between the 18 and 26 of May, 2022.

The Selection

This year organizers received 1,700 short films and 1,100 feature films; eleven (11) feature films were selected, nine (9) are first feature film and two (2) are second feature films. The short films committee selected 10 short films for the competition and three special screenings.  There are five (5) European films in competition and from them, four (4) are French.  My first reaction after learning the films in Cannes including parallel sections is that 2022 has a very-strong presence of European cinema which I highly celebrate as most are "great" French cinema. Still, miss great films from other parts of the world; but,  imagine Venice will have less European films as seems Cannes got most of all 2021 production (lol!).

Competition

Aftersun, Charlotte Wells, UK and USA
Alma Viva, Cristèle Alves Meira, Portugal and France
Dalva (Love According to Dalva), Emmanuelle Nicot, Belgium and France
La Jauría, Andrés Ramírez Pulido, Colombia and France
Metsurin tarina (The Woodcutter Story), Mikko Myllylahti, Finland
Nos Cérémonies (Summer Scars), Simon Rieth, France
Tasavor (Imagine), Ali Behrad, Iran

Special Screenings

Goutte d'Or (Sons of Ramses), Clément Cogitore, France
Tout le monde aime Jeanne (Everybody loves Jeanne), Céline Devaux, France

Opening Film: When You Finish Saving The World, Jesse Eisenberg, USA
Closing Film : 다음 소희 Da-eim-so-hee (Next Sohee), Jung July, South Korea

Short Films

Canker, Lin Tu, China
Cuerdas (Chords), Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Spain
Dang Wo Wang Xiang Ni De Shi Hou (Will You Look At Me), Shuli Huang, China (documentary)
Ice Merchants, João Gonzalez, Portugal, UK and France (animation)
It's Nice in Here, Robert-Jonathan Koeyers, Netherlands (animation)
Las Criaturas que se Derriten bajo el Sol, Diego Céspedes, Chile and France
Nisam je stigao voljeti (I didn't make it to love her), Anna Fernandez De Paco, Bosnia, Spain and UK
Στον Θρονο Του Ξερξη On Xerxe's Throne, Evi Kalogiropoulou, Greece
Raie Manta (Manta Ray), Anton Bialas, France
Swan das le centre (Swan in the center), Iris Chassaigne, France

Special Screenings
Amo, Emmanuel Gras, France
Hideous, Yann Gonzalez, UK
Scale, Joseph Pierce, France, UK, Czech Republic and Belgium (animation)

Announcement Video

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