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Shorts always present the most exciting selections at a film festival, since these days they are both a starting point for young filmmakers to watch, and a testing ground for more established filmmakers to try out their ideas and experiment in the Seventh Art.
So when Cannes just announced their Short Films selection, as well as their La Cinef titles, it contained some of the most fascinating choices. As a reminder, La Cinef is the branch of the Official Selection aimed at talent-spotting up-and-coming directors. In fact, every year since 1998, over 2,000 films from film schools around the world are entered into this selection, with only a handful making it to the final lineup.
This year, there are a total of 14 short fictions and 2 animated short films, and among them 10 films are directed by women and 7 films by men. 13 countries from 4 continents are represented including Morocco, for the first time in this selection. The Moroccan entry is the 13 mins film Ayyur by Zineb Wakrim from the ÉSAV (l'École Supérieure des Arts Visuels) in Marrakech.
From Egypt, also in La Cinef's selection, is the 12 mins short Al Toraa' (The Call of the Brook) by Cairo based filmmaker Jad Chahine, at the High Cinema Institute in Giza. Following the announcement, Jad Chahine expressed his excitement at being selected by saying: “I’m very glad that our film debut made it to this iconic festival, and I’m honored and proud to be one of the Egyptian selections in this year’s edition of the festival. The Call of the Brook is the first Egyptian film in this section since 2014.”
In fact, the last Egyptian to participate in La Cinef (then called Cinéfondation Selection) was Omar El Zohairy's The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375, and that year the head of the shorts jury was Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami. El Zohairy then went on to make Feathers, his feature debut which premiered in the Critics' Week in Cannes to critical acclaim.
From Iran comes Daroone Poust (Inside the Skin), a 16 mins film co-directed by Shafagh Abosaba & Maryam Mahdiye at the Karnameh Film School, a cultural institution based in Tehran which boasts as current and past instructor distinguished names of Iranian cinema like Kiarostami and Asghar Farhadi.
In the Short Films selection, the MENA is less represented by there is a film co-directed by Israeli-born BAFTA nominated photographer Karni Arieli, along with frequent collaborator Saul Freed titled Wild Summon, an animation project listed as a UK production.
Basri & Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy is Khozy Rizal's project from Indonesia (pictured in the header) a cool looking film from the looks of the first image.
And last, but not least, Damian Kocur's co-directed short, along with Ukrainian-born filmmaker Anastasia Solonevich, titled As It Was. She talked about being selected in Cannes on Facebook, also tagging her co-helmer in the process.
Find all the selected titles below.
THE SHORT FILMS COMPETITION
LA PERRA (THE BITCH)
Carla Melo Gampert
Colombia & France - 14'
AS IT WAS
Anastasia Solonevych & Damian Kocur
Poland & Ukraine - 15'
TITS
Eivind Landsvik
Norway - 12'
27
Flóra Anna Buda
Hungary & France - 11'
LE SEXE DE MA MÈRE
Francis Canitrot
France - 14'
AUNQUE ES DE NOCHE
Guillermo García López
Spain & France - 14'
BASRI & SALMA IN A NEVER-ENDING COMEDY
Khozy Rizal
Indonesia - 15'
POOF
Margaret Miller
United States - 10'
NADA DE TODO ESTO (NONE OF THESE)
Patricio Martínez & Francisco Canton
Argentina & Spain- 15'
WILD SUMMON
Karni Arieli & Saul Freed
United Kingdom - 14'
FÁR (INTRUSION)
Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter
Iceland - 5'
LA CINEF SELECTION
DAROONE POUST (INSIDE THE SKIN)
Shafagh Abosaba & Maryam Mahdiye
Karnameh Film School - Iran - 16'
KILLING BORIS JOHNSON
Musa Alderson-Clarke
NFTS - United Kingdom - 24'
NEHEMICH
Yudhajit Basu
FTII - India - 23'
IMOGENE
Katie Blair
Columbia University - United States - 19'
AL TORAA' (THE CALL OF THE BROOK)
Jad Chahine
High Cinema Institute - Egypt - 12'
A BRIGHT SUNNY DAY
Yupeng He
Columbia University - United States - 20'
HOLE
Hwang Hyein
KAFA - South Korea - 24'
LA VOIX DES AUTRES (THE VOICE OF OTHERS)
Fatima Kaci
La Fémis - France - 30'
ELECTRA
Daria Kashcheeva
FAMU - Czech Republic - 27'
TRENC D'ALBA (CRACK OF DAWN)
Anna Llargués
ESCAC - Spain - 28'
NORWEGIAN OFFSPRING
Marlene Emilie Lyngstad
Den Danske Filmskole - Denmark - 44'
OSMÝ DEN (EIGHTH DAY)
Petr Pylypčuk
FAMU - Czech Republic - 20'
THE LEE FAMILIES
Seo Jeong-mi
Korea National University of Arts - South Korea - 25'
SOLOS (GROUND)
Pedro Vargas
FAAP - Brazil - 13'
AYYUR (MOON)
Zineb Wakrim
ÉSAV Marrakech - Morocco - 13'
UHRMENSCHEN (PRIMITIVE TIMES)
Yu Hao
Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF - Germany - 6'
The jury for both Shorts and La Cinef were announced earlier and you can see the article here on MIME.
