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LES ARCS 2016

Top-drawer films and female directors heading for Les Arcs

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- The Les Arcs European Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its eighth edition, which will unspool from 10-17 December 2016

Top-drawer films and female directors heading for Les Arcs
Home by Fien Troch

Now an unmissable rendezvous for European professionals involved in the seventh art, the Les Arcs European Film Festival has revealed the programme for its eighth edition (10-17 December 2016).

Eight French premieres are on the competition menu rustled up by artistic director Frédéric Boyer, and the ten features set to duke it out for the 2016 Crystal Arrow will offer a spectacular "best of" from the current crop of European arthouse films, with titles that screened at Venice (Home [+see also:
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interview: Fien Troch
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]
by Belgian director Fien Troch, which snagged the Best Director Award in the Mostra’s Orizzonti section), Locarno (Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petar Valchanov
interview: Petar Valchanov, Kristina G…
film profile
]
by Bulgarian duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, which was popular in competition, and Daydreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Caroline Deruas
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]
by French director Caroline Deruas, in Filmmakers of the Present), Karlovy Vary (the award-winning Zoology [+see also:
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interview: Ivan I Tverdovsky
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]
by Russia’s Ivan Tverdovsky), Zurich (Miséricorde [+see also:
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interview: Fulvio Bernasconi
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]
by Swiss filmmaker Fulvio Bernasconi) and Toronto: Layla M [+see also:
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]
by Dutch director Mijke de Jong, Pyromaniac [+see also:
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interview: Erik Skjoldbjærg
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]
by Norway’s Eric SkjoldbjaergThe Fixer [+see also:
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interview: Adrian Sitaru
interview: Tudor Aaron Istodor
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]
by Romania’s Adrian Sitaru, Clair obscur [+see also:
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]
by Turkey’s Yesim Ustaoglu and Lady Macbeth [+see also:
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interview: William Oldroyd
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]
by British filmmaker William Oldroyd (which also took home the FIPRESCI Award in competition at San Sebastián).

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This year, the gathering has decided to focus in on ten European female directors, who will come to discuss their vision of cinema and who will each have one of their films screened: French directors Houda Benyamina (Divines [+see also:
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interview: Houda Benyamina
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]
) and Rachel Lang (Baden Baden [+see also:
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]
), Austria’s Jessica Hausner (Lourdes [+see also:
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interview: Jessica Hausner
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]
), Ireland’s Rebecca Daly (Mammal [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), Italy’s Laura Bispuri (Sworn Virgin [+see also:
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Q&A: Laura Bispuri
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]
), Germany’s Veronica Franz (Goodnight Mommy [+see also:
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interview: Severin Fiala and Veronika …
film profile
]
), Hungary’s Agnes Kocsis (Fresh Air [+see also:
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]
), German-based South African filmmaker Pia Marais (Layla Fourie [+see also:
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]
), Lithuania’s Alanté Kavaïté (The Summer of Sangaile [+see also:
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interview: Alanté Kavaïté
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]
) and the Netherlands’ Nanouk Leopold (Brownian Movement [+see also:
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film profile
]
). This young generation of female filmmakers will also be thrust into the limelight through a series of round-tables, a study, workshops and a master class that one of them will oversee.

The guest of honour at this year’s edition of the festival will be French director Bertrand Bonello, who will lead a master class and will be given a “carte blanche” to present three films of his choosing.

The “Hauteurs” (“Heights”) section will allow audiences to enjoy Sleeping Beauty [+see also:
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interview: Ado Arrietta
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]
by Spaniard Ado Arrieta, It's Not the Time of My Life [+see also:
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interview: Szabolcs Hajdu
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]
by Hungary’s Szabolcs Hajdu, Brotherhood, A Life with Saint Francis [+see also:
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]
by Renaud Fély and Arnaud Louvet, Orphan [+see also:
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interview: Arnaud des Pallières
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]
by French director Arnaud des Pallières, Quit Staring at My Plate [+see also:
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interview: Hana Jušić
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]
by Croatia’s Hana Jusi and The Last Family [+see also:
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interview: Dawid Ogrodnik
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]
by Poland’s Jan Matuszynski.

Films on the “Playtime” programme include Indivisible [+see also:
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interview: Edoardo de Angelis
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]
by Italy’s Edoardo de Angelis, King of the Belgians [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Jessica Woodworth, Peter Br…
film profile
]
by Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens, The Oath [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Iceland’s Baltasar Kormakur, three movies by French directors (Miss Impossible [+see also:
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film profile
]
by Emilie Deleuze, Elementary [+see also:
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]
by Hélène Angel and Une vie ailleurs [+see also:
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]
by Olivier Peyon), the French-Belgian production Lost in Paris [+see also:
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interview: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
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]
by Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel, and The Commune [+see also:
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interview: Thomas Vinterberg
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]
by Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg, which will have the honour of closing the festival.

An interesting new addition to the 2016 edition is the creation of a section devoted to documentaries, which includes such titles as Eat that Question - Frank Zappa in His Own Words [+see also:
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]
by Germany’s Thorsten Schütte, the Norwegian film Magnus [+see also:
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by Benjamin Ree, The Graduation [+see also:
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]
by French director Claire Simon and the Dutch production Ants on a Shrimp by Maurice Dekkers.

The Frayeurs (“Frights”) section includes some special screenings, with the now infamous Raw [+see also:
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interview: Julia Ducournau
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]
by young French director Julie Ducourneau, In the Forest [+see also:
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]
by her fellow countryman Gilles Marchand and Cave [+see also:
trailer
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]
by Norway’s Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken. In addition, there will be the documentaries A Young Girl in Her Nineties [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Yann Coridian, and While They Watched by Jake J Smith. Also of note on the educational programme is Little Wing [+see also:
trailer
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]
by Finland’s Selma Vilhunen and a film debate intended for young audiences, which revolves around the movie Layla M.

Last but not least, we should mention the professional events that will be outlined in more detail soon, with the 20 projects in the Coproduction Village, the 15 films in Work In Progress, a focus on Quebec, the Music Village Pro, workshops, debates, and the Distributors and Exhibitors’ Summit (with a line-up including 11 features, such as Hamé & Ekoué’s Paris Prestige and Tramontane [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Lebanese director Vatche Boulghourjian). 

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(Translated from French)

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