21/03/2025 - Professionals from the world of cinema and film music will come together in the French city between 24 and 29 March

We Believe You [+see also:
film review
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interview: Arnaud Dufeys and Charlotte…
film profile] by Belgians Arnaud Dufeys and Charlotte Devillers (awarded a Special Mention in Berlin’s Perspectives section – music by Lolita Del Pino) will be the opening film at the 26th edition of the International Music & Cinema Festival Marseille (MCM). Focused on young creation and unspooling between 24 and 29 March, this unmissable event for film and film music professionals is set to present a rich programme notably including 350 films hailing from 70 countries, as well as masterclasses, guests of honour (French director Boris Lojkine, British composer Jocelyn Pook and her Icelandic peer Atli Örvarsson) and an incredibly effective European Market for Film Music Composition (where 80% of projects find a composer).

Stealing focus among the 11 feature films (exclusively first, second or third films) battling it out for the 2025 Grand Prize for Best Original Score - besides the opening movie - are Toxic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Directors Talks @ European …
interview: Saulė Bliuvaitė
film profile] by Lithuania’s Saulė Bliuvaitė (victorious in Locarno – music by Gediminas Jakubka), Peacock [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernhard Wenger
film profile] by Austria’s Bernhard Wenger (screened in Venice’s Critics’ Week – music by Lukas Lauermann), Hanami [+see also:
film review
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interview: Denise Fernandes
film profile] by Swiss-Cape Verdean Denise Fernandes (earning the filmmaker Best Emerging Director in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente section – music by Rahel Zimmermann), No Dogs Allowed [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Germany’s Steve Bache (named Best First Film in Tallin – music by Andreas Pfeiffer) and Panopticon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: George Sikharulidze
film profile] by Georgia’s George Sikharulidze (well-received in competition in Karlovy Vary – music by Chiara Costanza).

Jostling alongside them are Lioness [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Estonia’s Liina Triškina-Vanhatalo (music by Nils Kacirek), Cassandre by French director Hélène Merlin (released in cinemas on 2 April – music by Delphine Malausséna), The Weeping Walk [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Belgium’s Dimitri Verhulst (in competition in Tallin – music by Peter Vermeersch), Mexico 86 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: César Díaz
film profile] by Belgian-Guatemalan director César Diaz (discovered on Locarno’s Piazza Grande – music by Rémi Boubal) and Family Therapy [+see also:
film review
interview: Sonja Prosenc
film profile] by Slovenia’s Sonja Prosenc (discovered in competition in Tribeca – music by Primož Hladnik and Boris Benko).

The "Duets" line-up focusing on the composition-mise en scène combination has selected Pascal Sangla and Jeanne Herry, who worked together on the latter’s three feature films (Elle l’adore [+see also:
trailer
film profile], In Safe Hands [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], All Your Faces [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), while the "They’re Back" section will foreground Clovis Schneider, who penned the music for In the Nguyen Kitchen [+see also:
film review
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interview: Stéphane Ly-Cuong
film profile]), Alexeï Aïgui (Ernest Cole, Lost and Found [+see also:
film review
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film profile]), Laetitia Pansanel-Garric (Hola Frida) and Antoine Glatard (La fille sur l’étagère).

Other attractions include the competition consisting of 64 short films, a Cartes Blanches section (whose films will notably screen in the Riga, Diagonale and In-Edit festivals), a Family line-up (including Baya Kasmi’s Mikado [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Baya Kasmi, Félix Moati
film profile]), an MCM’s Favourites section (involving Winter in Sokcho [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Koya Kamura
film profile] by Koya Kamura, Our Wildest Days [+see also:
interview: Vasilis Kekatos
film profile] by Vasilis Kekatos, Oxana [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Charlène Favier, Bertrand Hagenmüller’s documentary Les esprits libres, Pascal Tessaud’s Dans la peau, and Fotogenico [+see also:
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film profile] by Marcia Romano and Benoît Sabatier) and an array of conferences (primarily revolving around AI challenges within creative processes ranging from musical composition to sound post-production).

(Translated from French)