REPORT: Next Step 2025 @ Cannes’ Critics’ Week
- Eight young filmmakers are taking part in the programme steered by Cannes’ Critics’ Week and aimed at supporting directors make the leap to feature films
For the 11th year, the Critics’ Week team led by Ava Cahen is repeating its Next Step programme (directed by Thomas Rosso), aimed at helping young filmmakers (previously selected to compete in Cannes’ parallel section) to make the transition from short films to feature films. The programme notably includes a workshop (beginning on Sunday and lasting six days in the Moulin d’Andé watermill and then in Paris) and a competition, with the winning project set to be revealed on the Croisette in May (read our news on 2024 winner, A Girl Unknown by Zou Jing.
Recent titles to emerge from Next Step (an initiative which has backed 96 projects from 39 countries to date, 43% of which have been led by women directors) include Une langue universelle by Matthew Rankin (screened in this year’s Directors’ Fortnight), two films selected for this year’s Berlin Encounters competition (Arcadia [+see also:
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interview: Yorgos Zois
film profile] by Yorgos Zois and Special Jury Prize winner Some Rain Must Fall [+see also:
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interview: Molly Manning Walker
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interview: Felipe Gálvez
film profile] by Felipe Gálvez (Chile’s candidate for the 2024 Best International Film Oscar). Anticipated films (screening in premières or entering into production) for 2025, meanwhile, are first features by Morad Mostafa, Evi Kalogiropoulou, Andrei Epure, Vincent Tilanus, Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe, Vytautas Katkus, Jorge Sistos Moreno, Pedro Peralta, Fernanda Tovar, Ian Barling, Zou Jing and Oliver Adam Kusio.
Standing tall among the eight directors selected this year are four young European filmmakers: Portugal’s Isadora Neves Marques, French talent Mathilde Chavanne, fellow French director Guil Sela and Poland’s Dawid Bodzak, with the class of 2024 rounded off by Brazil’s Valentina Homem, Ethiopia’s Beza Hailu Lemma, Mexico’s Pablo Giles and the Philippines’ Arvin Belarmino. All of these promising directors will benefit from screenplay and production advice from Marie Dubas, Elene Naveriani, Julie Lecoustre, Yacine Badday and Philippe Barrière in the Next Step workshop. A session focused on film music is also on the agenda, with tailored consultations in the offing from composers Léonie Floret, Harry Allouche and Yan Wagner.
The 2024 Next Step projects are as follows:
DNA At The Speed of Light – Isadora Neves Marques (Portugal)
Production: Foi Bonita A Festa (Portugal)
Co-production: Anavilhana Filmes (Brazil)
Lana, a young, doubt-ridden filmmaker, is in a relationship with Lourdes, the daughter of a famous novelist who draws from her family history in her literary work. One day, Earth receives a message from an alien planet, revealing the presence of other lifeforms in the universe. As Lana tries to uncover the purpose behind this news, Lourdes aspires to free herself from the crippling burden of her mother’s art...
À la recherche du miraculeux - Mathilde Chavanne (France)
Production: Haut et Court (France)
Following a number of alarming research papers on children’s mental health, an experimental artistic residency scheme is tested in various schools. Margot, a 30-year-old theatre director herself on antidepressants, is hired to direct a musical with secondary-school pupils to try to restore their hope
Episode – Dawid Bodzak (Poland)
Production: Lava Films (Poland)
Janek is a high-school student obsessed with video cassettes and skateboarding. His mother, Elizabeth, a lonely woman fascinated by serial killers, struggles with her son’s mental health crises. As her friend Bernarda tries to convince her that her son’s strange behaviour is due to some form of demonic possession, Janek experiences another mental breakdown and his body and mind spiral out of control.
Life Is a Beach – Guil Sela (France)
Production: Les Films Norfolk (France)
It’s summertime and Isaac has his first gig as a lifeguard on a large sandy beach. From his high-perched chair, he watches over the swimmers and does his best to earn his colleagues’ respect, despite his awkwardness and highly intellectual temperament. Then, at an initiation party, he meets Rita.
Under The Baobab Tree – Valentina Homem (Brazil)
Production: Bubbles Project (Brazil)
As she journeys between Brazil and Mozambique, Valentina Homem tells the story of her anthropologist parents who travelled to the country to document the socialist revolution in 1975. She investigates relations and contradictions between the old Portuguese colonies and explores a new geopolitical reality: the neocolonial presence of Brazil in Mozambique and the global capitalist context. Little by little, a personal existential crisis also rears its head.
The Last Tears of the Deceased – Beza Hailu Lemma (Ethiopia)
Production: Production Gobez Media Inc (Canada)
Co-production: Les Cigognes Films (France)
A young, freshly-ordained, Ethiopian, orthodox priest called Abba Samuel is investigating his own death - which supposedly took place in 1980 - and his resurrection. He sets out on a journey through his country’s beliefs and contradictions in search of his past and the mystery of mortality.
Fuerzas Básicas – Pablo Giles (Mexico)
Production: Edge Films (Mexico) and Filmadora (Mexico)
After the loss of their mother, two brothers called Daniel and Luis who are passionate about soccer are raised by their strict disciplinarian father. But one day, a professional offer severs their bond and separates the two brothers. As Luis fulfills his dream, Daniel struggles with frustration, envy, and guilt. Over the course of two decades, distance tears them apart, until Daniel finds his brother Luis’s future in his hands.
Ria – Arvin Belarmino (Philippines)
Production: Production Waf Studios (Philippines)
Co-production: Daluyong Studios (Philippines) Yaman Film (Japan), Momo Film Co. (Singapore), Nathan S Studios (Philippines), Shasha and Co. (France)
In Quezon City, Manila, young, punk singer Ria and her ailing, adoptive mother Olga are living in Vachel Cave, a punk community and run-down neighbourhood which is standing its ground against property developers who have requisitioned the premises. A week before Vachel Cave is due to be demolished, demonstrations, vigilante activities and concerts multiply as they protect their haven and fight against their eviction.
(Translated from French)
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