16/04/2024 - 21 feature films, including two animations and two documentaries, grace the agenda of a selection full of surprises, and dominated by Patricia Mazuy, Jonas Trueba and Thierry de Peretti

"The idea is to delineate a real editorial line rather than a map of film production around the world. So we’ll see some gambles, established names, film crushes and even movies which have divided the selection committee. It’s about creating a strong identity with one particular focus in mind: the singularity of a film’s writing, as conveyed in the mise en scène, not to mention its poetry, authenticity, emotion and imagination".

After stupefying a number of observers last year with a highly audacious if not outright radical selection on certain levels, Julien Rejl - the artistic director of the Directors’ Fortnight - is continuing in this vein with his line-up for the parallel section’s 56th edition (unspooling 15 – 25 May as part of the 77th Cannes Film Festival), which was unveiled today in Paris’s Forum des Images. Diversity, surprises and discoveries will all be jostling on the agenda, which includes 21 feature films (as well as nine shorts) in the form of nine European titles, five North Americans, three Asian, three South American and one African (with four of these also being first feature films).

Five French filmmakers will be in on the action: the late Sophie Fillières who’ll be opening the Fortnight with This Life Of Mine (read our article), seasoned director Patricia Mazuy (who most notably screened in competition in Locarno 2022 by way of Saturn Bowling [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Patricia Mazuy
film profile]) with Visiting Hours (article – starring Isabelle Huppert and Hafsia Herzi), Thierry de Peretti (revealed in the 2013 Fortnight via Les Apaches [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], screened in Critics’ Week 2017 by way of A Violent Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and in competition in San Sebastián 2021 by way of Undercover [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thierry de Peretti
film profile]) with In His Own Image (article), the duo Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel (discovered in Toronto’s Platform section in 2018 via Jessica Forever [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) with Eat The Night (article), and Jean-Christophe Meurisse (revealed by way of Apnée [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in Critics’ Week 2016 and well-received in a Midnight Screening in 2021 via Bloody Oranges [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Christophe Meurisse
film profile]) with Plastic Guns (article), which is set to close the Fortnight.

Another two European filmmakers also feature in the selection: Spain’s Jonas Trueba (who competed in San Sebastián in 2021 and in 2016 with Who’s Stopping Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile] and The Reconquest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile] respectively, who was awarded the Special Jury Prize in Karlovy Vary in 2022 thanks to You Have to Come and See It [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile] and a Special Mention in 2019 via The August Virgin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonás Trueba
film profile]) with The Other Way Around, and Portugal’s Paulo Carneiro with his hybrid documentary Savanna and The Mountain. The Danish director of Palestinian origin Mahdi Fleifel (well-received in the 2013 Berlinale’s Panorama section for his documentary A World Not Ours [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) will likewise be joining this Old Continent contingent, armed with his first fiction feature film To a Land Unknown, as will India’s Karan Kandhari with his British production Sister Midnight.

North American independent film will be very well represented thanks to Universal Language by Canadian Matthew Rankin and four films hailing from the USA: Christmas Eve in Miller's Point by Tyler Taormina (his 3rd feature after Ham on Rye, revealed in Locarno’s Cineasti del presente section in 2019, and Happer’s Comet, unveiled in the Berlinale Forum in 2022) and first feature films Eephus by Carson Lund, Good One by India Donaldson (previously screened in the Sundance Festival) and Gazer by Ryan J Sloan.

Two Japanese feature films will be flying the flag for Asia (the animated movie Ghost Cat Anzu by the duo Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, and Desert of Namibia by Yôko Yamanaka), alongside Mongrel by Chiang Wei Lang and Yin You Qiao (co-produced by Taiwan, Singapore and France). Latin America will also be gracing the showcase with animated movie The Hyperboreans by Chilean directors Cristóbal Leon and Joaquin Cociña (awarded a Jury Mention in Annecy 2018 thanks to The Wolf House), the documentary The Falling Sky by Brazilians Eryk Rocha (notably the winner of Cannes’ Golden Eye in 2016 on account of Cinema Novo) and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, and Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed by Argentina’s Hernán Rosselli (discovered in 2014 via Mauro). Africa, for its part, will be represented by Egypt’s Hala Elkoussy (revealed in Rotterdam’s Bright Future line-up in 2017 via Cactus Flower) with East of Noon.

Last but not least, the Fortnight will be paying tribute to filmmaker Chantal Akerman by way of a special screening of her movie American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy (1989).

The selected titles:

Feature Films

This Life of Mine (Ma vie ma gueule) - Sophie Fillières (France) (opening film)
In His Own Image (À son image) - Thierry de Peretti (France)
Christmas Eve in Miller's Point - Tyler Taormina (USA)
Desert of Namibia - Yôko Yamanaka (Japan)
East of Noon - Hala Elkoussy (Egypt)
Eat the Night - Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel (France)
Eephus - Carson Lund (USA)
Gazer - Ryan J Sloan (USA)
Ghost Cat Anzu - Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita (Japan)
Good One - India Donaldson (USA)
Mongrel - Chiang Wei Liang and You Qiao Yin (Taiwan/Singapore/France)
Visiting Hours (La Prisonnière de Bordeaux) - Patricia Mazuy (France)
Savanna and the Mountain - Paulo Carneiro (Portugal)
Sister Midnight - Karan Kandhari (UK/India)
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed (Algo viejo, algo nuevo, algo prestado) - Hernán Rosselli (Argentina)
The Falling Sky - Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha (Brazil)
The Hyperboreans (Los hiperbóreos) - Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (Chile)
The Other Way Around (Volveréis) - Jonás Trueba (Spain)
To a Land Unknown - Mahdi Fleifel (Palestine/Denmark)
Universal Language - Matthew Rankin (Canada)
Plastic Guns (Les pistolets en plastique) - Jean-Christophe Meurisse (France) (closing film)

Feature Films - Special Screening

Histoires d'Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy (1989) - Chantal Akerman (Belgium)

Short Films

After the Sun (Après le soleil) - Rayane Mcirdi (France/Algeria)
Extremely Short - Kōji Yamamura (Japan)
Immaculata - Kim Lêa Sakkal (Germany/Lebanon)
Antoine, Élise and Léandre (Les Météos d'Antoine) - Jules Follet (France)
Mulberry Fields - Nguyễn Trung Nghĩa (Vietnam)
Our Own Shadow (Nuestra sombra) - Agustina Sánchez Gavier (Argentina)
The Moving Garden - Inês Lima (Portugal)
Very Gentle Work - Nate Lavey (USA)
When The Land Runs Away - Frederico Lobo (Portugal)

(Translated from French)