Three days ahead of the 15th Les Arcs Film Festival (read our article) and its accompanying Industry Village, which notable includes the ever-highly anticipated Work in Progress (WiP) line-up, with 13 films on this year’s agenda (news), we met with the festival’s artistic director Frédéric Boyer (who also works for Tribeca and Reykjavik).

Cineuropa: 181 films competed to take part in Les Arcs’ Work in Progress line-up this year. What do you think about this record number?
Frédéric Boyer: It’s not just a case of a record number; up until the past two or three years, scores of documentaries were being submitted to our Work in Progress section, which is no longer the case: producers have finally understood that we only ever select one documentary, and that their chances were far more limited. So we’re receiving fewer documentaries and more fiction films, although there are lots of similar films among the latter, including a large number of first feature films along the "coming of age" theme, as has also been the case in previous years. It’s almost become a tradition! We’ve also had slightly fewer films hailing from southern Europe this year (Italy,  Spain, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, etc.): it’s surprising but maybe it’s just that the high-quality films in these countries have already found international sales agents. That said, Scandinavian cinema definitely seems to be bouncing back this year.

What can we expect from this year’s 13 Work in Progress films?
Les Arcs is the last European festival of the year, so professionals come here to discover films which might be selected in next year’s category A festivals - Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Venice and Sundance - as is the case for Veni Vidi Vici by Daniel Hoesl, which we presented at last year’s Work in Progress event and which has just been selected in the World Cinema Dramatic competition.

We try to listen to sales agents as well as festival programmers. This year’s selection is no doubt more open to the wider public, we don’t only have arthouse movies. At the minute, it’s like the pendulum is swinging backwards: sales agents are looking for films which they’re practically certain they can sell. They’re taking far fewer risks; they don’t want to look after 12 films a year anymore, they’d rather have 4 to 6 which they work really hard on. Obviously, there are still some sales agents with copious line-ups, but they’re the exception.

In our selection, we try to diversify styles, stories and imaginary worlds, and to showcase well-produced films with appeal. And, obviously, we prioritise films which are genuinely "in progress", because we’ve also received high-quality films which were already finished back in June. If they’re shown to us in September, it means they’ve already been shown elsewhere… We try to have films which are in the middle of filming, or which are wrapping filming, and young talents with lots of first films too. But we also have a few very easily recognisable authors, like Marie Losier and Jeppe Rønde. We had a wide choice available to us because lots of filmmakers and producers wait for Les Arcs, hoping to be selected for the Work in Progress section. It helps them to get a foot in the door when they’re from "small" countries, and we’re also noticing that it’s not easy for some of them to complete financing to finalise their films, because the economics of arthouse cinema are trickier overall.

Is arthouse cinema still finding its audience?
The most valued filmmakers over the past two years, Yorgos Lanthimos and Ruben Östlund, are pure products of arthouse cinema and they’re also filmmakers who take risks. We’re not interested in standardised films and if we’re not gambling on films, we’re gambling on filmmakers. What’s brilliant is the success of Aftersun [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which had a tiny budget, telling the story of a father and daughter: we might have asked ourselves who would have been interested in it, but it managed to capture the attention of the whole world. We’re going through a difficult time, but there’s definitely hope: lots of people wait for those kinds of films.

Is the "crossover" idea key to the future of arthouse films?
It’s primarily what sales agents are looking for: slightly thriller-esque films but also wonderful character portraits; films which explore a variety of paths and which aren’t just genre films, even though these films are also very well-liked.

What about the platforms versus cinemas debate?
Inside [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vasilis Katsoupis
scheda film] by Vasilis Katsoupis, which was screened in Berlin’s Panorama line-up, is currently one of the most watched films on Netflix in the USA. That’s huge for a Greek arthouse film, even if it does star Willem Dafoe in its cast! For sales agents, platforms are a real opportunity because it’s hard to find cinemas for this kind of film; although with a good festival and awards under their belts, anything is possible.