International films
The International Competition is the place where the different horizons that make up the richness of world short film meet and intersect. Animated masterpieces, documentaries, comedies, contemporary realities, genre films, graduation works from the world’s best schools – here are 12 programmes to take you into worlds that only young filmmakers can create.
Where is my mind?
The International Competition program aspires to offer much more than a simple cinematographic panorama. It sketches out the living portrait of a world in 64 chapters, 64 films that expose, question, and invite us to look with a fresh pair of eyes at a reality where everyday life rubs stands alongside the extraordinary.
“Laughter is the best medicine”
This year, humor is a soft but incisive weapon in the International Competition. Rhubarb Rhubarb (United Kingdom) plunges us in the heated arguments between father and daughter who are owners of a rhubarb company that has been shaken up following Brexit. With dark satire, Pirateland (Greece, France, Norway) depicts an improbable encounter between a Greek family and Norwegian tourists in search of pirate adventures that go awry. Quota (Netherlands) also decides to use laughter when dealing with the climate crisis, imagining a frenetic countdown until the end of the world.
“Come together right now”
The selection also offers portraits of struggle and resilience. A Move (UK, Iran) puts forward a poignant plea for women’s freedom, oscillating between provocation and the urgency to express oneself. In Ukraine, I Died in Irpin (Czech Republic) follows a young woman who chooses to remain in the heart of the chaos taking place around her, showing that before resisting, you must first survive. Finally, in Upshot (Palestine), a couple tries to escape their past by cutting themselves off from the world, exploring interiority as their only refuge.
“It’s just an illusion”
Faced with sometimes unbearable daily lives, imagination becomes a buoy and hope is reinvented in dreams or the mystical. In Jason et les royaumes(Jason and the Kingdoms) (Belgium), a young man narrates a fantasy life to escape his reality. In Lanawaru (Colombia), a community chooses to turn to traditions and spirituality to transform anxiety into a calming journey. Finally, A Bear Remembers (United Kingdom) takes a small English community on a mystical quest brought on by a simple sound, thus revealing our irrepressible need to better understand our surroundings and ourselves.
These short films, whether they make us laugh, struggle or imagine, resonate with our lives, here and elsewhere. They remind us that art is just as much a mirror as it is an escape, a banner that we brandish together to face an ever-changing reality. This program is an invitation to look at the world differently, through the eyes of those who still tell it best.
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Competition coordination
Tim Redford
t.redford@clermont-filmfest.org
International Competition selection committee
Calmin Borel, Diana Borja, Fabien De Macedo, Tim Redford, Grégoire Rouchit, Julie Rousson, Camille Varenne.
With the help of pre-selectors Laura Addamo, Préféré Aziako, Fanny Barrot, Gilles Berger, Georges Bollon, Guillaume Bonhomme, Lucas Brunier-Mestas, Adrien Calla, Regina Campos, Masumi Chiba, Elsa Cornevin, Fanny Dauny, Béranger Debrand, Noémie Devos, Claire Diao, Sébastien Duclocher, Raphaël Gallet, Christian Guinot, Claire Juge, Caroline Lardy, Rémi Laroëre, Jérémy Laurichesse, Eleonore Llinares, Vera Mechid-Huin, Sarah Momesso, Sam Poulange, Bertrand Rouchit, Julia Salles, Chloé Sanchez, Kartik Singh, Laura Thomasset, Éric Wójcik.