25/09/2023 - The new programme by the Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival begins with a selection made up of five projects and three composers

(top row, from left to right) Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, João Paulo Miranda Maria, Konstantina Kotzamani and Sam Kuhn, (bottom row, from left to right) Nada Riyadh, Pierre Desprats, Delphine Malaussena and Rémi Boubal

Since 2014, the Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival has been following its talents from short to feature film through its Next Step programme, which includes a workshop and a competition awarding one project every year in May on the Croisette (read the news).

This programme is now strengthened by a second annual workshop, organised with the support of the Sacem and in partnership with the agri-cultural project and studio space Providenza, and whose first edition will take place this week in Corsica. Next Step Volume II is open to filmmakers who have been through Critics’ Week and are working on their debut or second feature project, and aims to facilitate meetings with composers, by bringing them together at the crucial moment of the script rewrite. 

Among the selected filmmakers, we find Spain’s Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, Greece’s Konstantina Kotzamani, Sam Kuhn from the USA, Brazil’s João Paulo Miranda Maria and Egypt’s Nada Riyadh. They will be joined from 25 to 30 September at the residency in the North of Corsica by composers Delphine Malaussena, Pierre Desprats and Rémi Boubal. Also part of the process will be script (Yacine Badday, Guillaume Bréaud and Jérémie Dubois), distribution (Thomas Pibarot) and music consultants (composer Amine Bouhafa and music supervisor Etienne Tricard).

The selected projects:

Forastera - Lucía Aleñar Iglesias
Production: Lastor Media (Spain), Vilaüt Films (Spain), La Perifèrica (Spain), Alpha Violet Production (France), Fox in the Snow (Sweden)
Catalina’s vacation is dramatically disrupted by the absurd and violent death of her grandmother, which only she witnesses. A casual gesture - wearing the clothes of the deceased – will provoke an emotional earthquake among those who love her.

Titanic Ocean - Konstantina Kotzamani
Production: Homemade Films (Greece), Manny Films (France), Frida Films (Spain), Wunderlust (Germany), deFilm (Romania), Happinet Phantom Studios (Japan)
A disconnected Japanese teenager, training to become a professional mermaid, is saved from a near death experience when her coach gives her the kiss of life. Desire awakens, she finds her voice and discovers the devastating effects of her siren song.

In Blue - Sam Kuhn
Production: 2AM (USA), Solab Films (France)
Audrey and Shep arrive as strangers in the South of France to spend the August holidays at a villa with their mythical French ami Felix. Except: Felix doesn’t arrive.

Bandeira - João Paulo Miranda Maria
Production: RT Features (Brazil), Les Valseurs (France)
In the heart of the Amazon, Jonas, a young Indigenous boy with European origins, longs to continue the quest for gold initiated by his ancestors. Torn between two identities and backgrounds, he will sooner or later have to confront his past to understand the true origins of this quest, and discover who he really is.

Moonblind - Nada Riyadh
Production: Felucca Films (Egypt)
Nine-year-old Nour must leave Cairo after stabbing her sexually abusive uncle. Finding refuge on an island upstream of the Nile as the assistant of a mystic healer, she becomes Badr, an androgynous teenager, both feared and mocked.

(Translated from French)