On Tuesday 4 July, American filmmaker Whit Stillman will open the 34th Marseille International Film Festival– FIDMarseille (directed by Tsveta Dobreva) with Damsels in Distress (within the first retrospective - named Ultra High Comedy - ever dedicated to his work). Unspooling until 9 July, with the closing slot entrusted to Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], the event will offer up 106 films (hailing from 35 countries), 35 of which will be shown in world premières and five in international premières across 5 competitive sections hosting 21 women directors and 25 men. Also stealing focus among the numerous attractions on the agenda are tributes to the much-missed Paul Vecchiali and to the French name in contemporary art Laure Prouvost.

Standing tall among the 13 titles (of which 11 are screening in world premieres) taking part in the international competition (assessed by a jury presided over by German filmmaker Angela Schanelec) are 12 feature films, notably German production Background [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] by Khaled Abdulwahed, De Facto [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] by the Bosnian director (living in Austria) Selma Doborac, Diagonal Force by Belgians Annick Leroy and Julie Morel, French title Ricordati che è un film comico by César Vayssié, the Austrian-German production Losing Faith by Martha Mechow, Spanish movie Night Work (Tembiapo pyharegua) by Christian Bagnat and Elvira Sanchez Poxon, The Mariner (O Marinheiro) by Yohei Yamakado (produced by Portugal and France), and Twittering Soul by Lithuania’s Deimantas Narkevičius.

As for the French competition (whose jury will be steered by French director Yann Gonzalez), 8 world premieres are on the agenda, five of which are feature films by the names of The Island [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Damien Manivel, New World! (The World Anew) [+leggi anche:
intervista: Nicolas Klotz ed Élisabeth…
scheda film] by Élisabeth Perceval and Nicolas Klotz, I Will Never Heal by David Yon, the French-Spanish production Pacheû by Camille Llobet, The Night Drags On by Mathilde Girard, and The Trail of the Asphodels by Maxime Martinot.

Three other competitive sections are set to bolster the FIDMarseille programme: the first films line-up is notably set to showcase Aurora’s Dream by Serbia’s Dragana Jovanocic, Masturbator’s Heart by France’s Michael Salerno, and Noise by Spain’s Tamara Garcia Iglesias. Also worth a mention is the Ciné+ Competition, which will present works such as Here [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Bas Devos
scheda film] by Belgium’s Bas Devos (crowned Best Film within the Encounters line-up at this year’s Berlinale), Swiss production The Curse [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Maria Kaur Bedi and Satindar Singh Bedi, and two films discovered in competition in Rotterdam: Birdland [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] by Leïla Kilani and Geology of Separation [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Yor Gasmi and Mauro Mazzocchi. The Flash Competition for short films rounds off the festival’s competitive showcase.

Equally noteworthy in the FIDMarseille 2023 line-up is the "Others Gems" section, notably presenting the feature films Man in Black [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Wang Bing (unveiled in a Special Screening in Cannes), Burn To Shine by France’s Patricia Allio, and My Sentence by Austria’s Amina Handke. But there’s also a masterclass delivered by Whit Stillman, the screening of Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s Chicken for Linda! [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (discovered in Cannes and triumphant in Annecy) within the "Young and All Audiences" line-up, a Special Screening of Natacha Samuel and Florent Klockenbring’s French production Peter Pan, the work in progress Une longue distance by Guillaume Lillo, a Doc Alliance offering, including João Rosas’ Portuguese feature Death of The City and Disturbed Earth [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Kumjana Novakova, Guillerm…
scheda film] by Macedonia’s Kumjana Novakova and Spain’s Guillermo Carreras-Candi, and, in case it wasn’t obvious, the professional FIDLab sidebar unfolding on 6 and 7 July (read our article).