25/04/2003 - Just one American film surrounded by numerous French, Spanish and Italian titles. The programme of the new Quinzaine, directed by François da Silva, features 25 titles, 15 of which from Europe

30 feature and 18 short films at the 35th Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight). The programme was announced today in Paris at the Forum des Images.
The prestigious sidebar event to the Cannes Film Festival proper, will unfold from 16-25 May, under the artistic direction of a new man, François da Silva who described the personal decisions that lead him to choose “quality films from 28 different countries, without ever creating a geographical patchwork however”. This strategy of his has opened the doors of the event to a large European contingent: 15 of the 25 films selected were produced by the Old Continent.

France leads the field with six titles: La Chose Publique by Mathieu Amalric, Les Lionceaux by Claire Doyon, Le monde vivant by Eugène Green, No pasaran, album souvenir by Henri-François Imbert, Pas de repos pour les braves [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alain Guiraudie and Sansa [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Siegfried. The Spanish contingent includes Les Hores del dia by Iberian filmmaker Jaime Rosales, Quaresma by Portugal’s Jose Alvaro Morais and with A Mulher que acreditava ser presidente dos Estado Unidos da America by his compatriot, Jao Botelho, scheduled to open the event.

Other Europeans selected are Germany’s Yüksel Yavuz (Kleine Freiheit), Belgium’s Thomas de Thier (Des plumes dans la tête [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Italy’s Costanza Quatriglio (L'isola), Norway’s Bent Hamer (Kitchen Stories), Romania’s Lucian Pintilie (Niky et Flo) and the United Kingdom’s Roger Mitchell (The mother).

In addition, this year’s Quinzaine will also be screening five Special Sessions that include France’s Saltimbank by Jean-Claude Biette.

When asked about the reasons for the lone American in his selection, François da Silva said that he had also chosen Gus van Sant’s Elephant only it was subsequently picked up by the official Competition and that the other 48 US productions he, da Silva, saw did not have the requisites to be selected for the Fortnight. Da Silva thanked ringraziare France Télévisions who stepped in and saved the day after the last-minute defection of Canal+, thus becoming the Quinzaine’s Partner.

(Translated from French)