Passages [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Ira Sachs (selected for both the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale Panorama), who will be one of the guests of honour at the gathering, will today open the 12^th Champs-Elysées Film Festival (founded and presided over by Sophie Dulac), which will be brought to a close on 27 June by The (Ex)perience of Love [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ann Sirot e Raphael Balboni
scheda film] by Anne Sirot and Raphaël Balbani (unveiled in the Cannes Critics’ Week). The programme of the festival includes more than 70 independent US and French films that will be shown in several theatres (the Balzac, the Lincoln, Publicis Cinémas, the Gaumont Pathé Champs-Élysées Marignan and the UGC Normandie) along the famous Parisian avenue, where US filmmaker and producer Eliza Hittman will also be present as a guest of honour.

Chaired by French director Bertrand Bonello (who is backed up by Pénélope Bagieu, Irène Drésel, Ellie Foumbie and Rabah Nait Oufella), the feature-film jury will be weighing up the contenders in two competitions dedicated to indie cinema – one bringing together six US flicks and the other the same number of French works. The latter will showcase Vincent Must Die [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Stéphan Castang
scheda film] by Stéphan Castang (a star attraction in the Cannes Critics’ Week), Animalia [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sofia Alaoui
scheda film] by Sofia Alaoui (popular in competition at the Sundance Film Festival), On the Edge [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Nicolas Peduzzi (Special Mention at CPH:DOX, and screened as part of the ACID programme at Cannes last month), the animated movie The Siren [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Sepideh Farsi (which opened the Berlinale Panorama), The Beast in the Jungle [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Patric Chiha
scheda film] by Patrick Chiha (also presented in the Berlinale Panorama) and the Belgian-French co-production It’s Raining in the House [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Paloma Sermon-Daï
scheda film] by Paloma Sermon-Daï (French Touch Jury Prize in the Cannes Critics’ Week).

The programme, which is rounded off by a competition for medium-length films (a new addition this year) and by two competitions for short films, also includes a section dubbed "Girl Power" (revolving around female directors who questioned, filmed and amplified girl power in the 1990s and 2000s) and boasts eight preview screenings, including the documentaries Our Body [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Claire Simon (popular in the Berlinale Forum) and Dunk or Die by Nicolas de Virieu, The Book of Solutions [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michel Gondry
scheda film] by Michel Gondry (unveiled in the Directors’ Fortnight), and the animated title Chicken for Linda! [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach (first revealed in ACID at Cannes and the big winner at Annecy last Saturday).