French films
in official competition

The National Competition showcases the best of French production over the past year, with 10 programmes of short films from all genres and backgrounds. Two French films are also part of the international competition.

The Vestiges of Chaos

This year’s National Competition spares nothing and no one. With poetic ruggedness, it oscillates between the brutality of a harsh social reality and the freedom offered by narratives in which boundaries between the tangible and the imaginary disappear. Certain films push the limits of absurdity to the extreme, with chilling dystopias that explore our contemporary preoccupations, as is the case with the troubling Deux personnes échangeant de la salive (Two People Exchanging Saliva). Others allow the fantasic to infuse in stories profoundly anchored in our time. In this manner, Familiar, Les Solariens (Solarians) or Attention Brouillard (Nemesio Blues) celebrate, each in their own way, the struggle against isolation and exclusion, underlining the importance of building a chosen family and of opening oneself to others. This is why, if pressed to identify a trend this year, it would be that of becoming the actor or actress of one’s own story, whether through allies met after straying off a hiking trail (Les Fleurs bleues – Lose Heart) or those encountered during exclusively masculine behavoiral therapy sessions (1 Hijo & 1 Padre – A Son & a Father).

For years, French cinema as a whole has tried to produce a social critique that addresses major issues of our time. The workplace, for its part, becomes an oppressive, closed environment in which invisible but universal tensions play out. The ruthlessness of reality bursts in narratives of struggle and injustice, exposing systemic violence stemming from police brutality, racism, LGBTQphobia, domestic violence, wounds inflicted by colonialism, facism or occupation, or the unbearable pressure endured when living with job insecurity. Added to this dark mosaic is the carceral universe and its tragedies, where violence that destroys lives sadly resonates. These stories are nonetheless incarnated by tenacious characters determined to resist in the face of despair: the hour is no longer that of cold and simple analysis. On the contrary, some short films trace back to the root of these issues and place us in the position of either the executioner or the victim. In Généalogie de la violence (Genealogy of Violence), the artist and director Mohamed Bourouissa slows down time to better have us feel the weight and the injustice of a random police ID check. Work as a theme is also at the heart of many films, from a first-time shepard isolated in his alpine pasture (Mille moutons, A Thousand Sheep and One More), a hotel housekeeping staff member (at the Bellevue Hotel in animation in Ma footballeuse à moi ! (My Very Own Footballer!) or in a luxury hotel in L’Homme de merde (The Man of Shit), in live action), coast guards at the borders of the Andalousian coastline (A Fronteira Azul – The Blue Frontier) or a security guard at Hellfest (Apocalypse).

Each film in this competition is anchored in a sensitive reality, addressing grief—both intimate and symbolic—and contemporary preoccupations that are both personal and universal. Together, they form a collective body of work that shine light on our anxieties, but also on our glimmers of hope and resilience.

The two French films in the International Competition are Papillon (Butterfly) by Florence Miailhe and Amsterdad by Augustin Bonnet. At a first glance, these films seem like polar opposites, but are in fact complementary pieces. The former is a very personal, sensitive and magnificent homage to the swimmer Alfred Nakache carried out by the French high priestess of animated paint on glass that we are delighted to welcome at this year’s Festival, almost 30 years after her presence here as Jury member. The latter is the young filmmaker’s second film, which takes place on a tumultuous family road trip, hurriedly shot during an escapade to the Netherlands, in which father and son fight and make up both onscreen and in the city with tenderness and humor.

On this journey, different eras and horizons reveal themselves, like so many escape exits or mirrors reflecting our own contradictions: in Kaminhu, a meeting in Cape Verde will shake Joanna’s convictions to the core, while in Across the Waters, it is the sudden appearance of a stranger in the isolated life the protagonist leads that will push the young girl to discern an elsewhere beyond the mountains that block the horizon. Finally, and because sometimes we just need it, the grotesque humor that fits so well with the short film format is present with, among others, an ever-lively Philippe Rebbot, playing his own role in Mort d’un acteur (Death of an Actor). Sensitivity, at the heart of each film, affirms itself as the central theme that shines light on the world’s darkness and offers, at times, a glimmer of hope.

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international co-productions
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of films directed or co-directed by women
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Films submitted
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animations
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Films selected
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premieres

Competition coordination

Stéphane Souillat
s.souillat@clermont-filmfest.org

National Competition selection committee

Fanny Barrot, Marie-Laure Boukredine, Marie Cordier, Sébastien Duclocher, Jérémy Laurichesse, Sarah Momesso, Bertrand Rouchit, Stéphane Souillat, Jérôme Ters, Laura Thomasset.