Post-production services worth 15 000 euros, 23 competing films, youth cinema programmes, and several prizes
Having reached the fourth edition, the Works in Progress (WiP) section of the festival draws the attention of film professionals to no less than 23 projects, produced or co-produced in Romania, all in the post-production stage. The event will take place on 19th and 20th October, at CINETic. The productions will have the opportunity to be seen by members of the most prestigious European film festivals selection committees: Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo and many others.
At the same time, post-production funds representatives, sales agents and post-production companies have also announced their participation. Cinelabs Romania will grant one of the films under this section a prize consisting of post-production services worth 10.000 euros, and Multimedia Est will also offer a similar prize, worth 5.000 euros.
The Une minute de vie, une minute de cinéma youth section finds itself at the second edition.
Why we watch films is the title of a cinema texts anthology written by Alex Leo Șerban, the answer to this question being very simple for those who grew up with two hours of television a day. For today’s youth, however, things start getting blurry, since they are bombarded with all sorts of video content.
Une minute de vie, une minute de cinema is a workshop that aims to bring cinema closer to young people by giving them the opportunity to make one-minute short films, about the things that interest them, with whatever mediums they have on hand.
This year, the project passes off in six high schools in Bucharest. In each of them, a filmmaker will discuss with young people about narrative structure, the manipulative nature of visual content, fake news, and, last but not least, about the pleasure of watching and making cinema – the filmmaker will also invite them to join the interactive workshop. This year, the mentors are: Radu Muntean at “Central School” National College, Paul Negoescu at “Sfantul Sava” National College, Bogdan Mustata at “Nicolae Tonita” Fine Arts High School, Nae Constantin Tanase at “George Cosbuc” National Bilingual College, Catrinel Danaita at “Spiru Haret” National College and Marc Solomon at “Tudor Vianu” National Informatics College.
After the workshop, the participants will visit CINETic – International Centre of Reaserch and Education in Innovative Creative Technologies, at the “I. L. Caragiale” National University of Theatre and Cinematography, where there will be discussions and work meetings with their mentors.
The most successful films made by the high school students will screen under the Autumn Preview section. Then, on Sunday, 27th October, starting 15:30, at Peasant Museum Cinema, the high school students will be able to publicly present their films, discuss them with the public and their colleagues, and it is them who will vote the favourites. A jury made up of filmmakers will watch the students’ films and choose the best one in each high school. The creators of the six winning films will receive a cinematheque subscription, as well as a prize worth 1000 lei. Project inspired by UniCredit Bank.
The two project coordinators are Marc Solomon, who is also a mentor this year, and Teona Galgotiu, whose short-film, My Mother Is Just One, will screen on 18th October, starting 17:30, at Peasant Museum Cinema, along with other Romanian short-films. Some of them are: The Last Trip to the Seaside, directed by Adi Voicu (2019), Borders, directed by Andra Chiriac (2017), Monster, directed by Laura Pop (2018), and A Death in My Family, directed by Andra Tarara (2018) and What Time is Made of, directed by Diana Vidrascu.
Along with the Romanian short-films, the public will also get the chance to watch short-film productions of one of the most awarded school films in the world: La Fémis, from France. On Friday, 25th October, at Elvire Popesco Cinema, starting 18:00, there will screen a selection of short-films made by former students of La Fémis, among which graduations films from the class of 2018. The films will be introduced by Julie Thingaud, Development and Professional Education Director, in charge of International Relationship at La Fémis, who will open up a conversation with the public at the end. La Fémis joining Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest was facilitated at the initiative of the Cinemascop Association of founding, at the “I. L. Caragiale” National University of Theatre and Cinematography, a screenplay-analysis master’s program.
The selection includes Gabber lover, directed by Anna Cazenave-Cambet, winner of the Queer Palm for the short-film at Cinéfondation, Cannes 2016, Les Oiseaux-Tonnerre, directed by Léa Mysius, included in the competition for the big Cinéfondation, prize, at Cannes 2014, or Rosso, directed by Antonio Messana, present in the Cinéfondation official selection, at Cannes 2019. The complete list of films can be found on filmedefestival.ro. Year after year, La Fémis students find themselves among the Cannes participants. This year, the collection of prizes of the famous university expands with the Best Screenplay award, granted to filmmaker Céline Sciamma, for Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, and the inclusion in the Official Competition of filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin, with his film Roubaix, une lumière. Laurent Cantet is among the famous former students of the film school, winner of Palme d’Or in 2008 with Entre les murs, which will screen at Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest.
As always, the shortest films in the festival are the ones in the Filmminute competition. This year, a total of 25 films from 17 different countries will compete for the Filmminute trophy, awarded by a jury made up of both Romanian and foreign filmmakers. The one-minute long films can be seen before the screenings of feature films.
For the Works in Progress (WiP) section of the festival, the following have confirmed participation: Olivier Pélisson – Semaine de la Critique, Cannes Film Festival, Lorenzo Esposito – Berlin International Film Festival, Lenka Tyrpakova – Kalovy Vary International Film Festival, Asja Krsmanovic – Sarajevo International Film Festival, Stefan Ivancic – Locarno International Film Festival, Nikolaj Nikitin – Prague International Film Festival, Stefan Kitanov – Sofia International Film Festival, for the second consecutive year, Evgeny Gusyantinskiy – Rotterdam International Film Festival, as well as Mandy Rahn – ARRI Media, Sean Wheelan – Filmgate Films, and Anthony Muir – Film i Väst.
Une minute de vie, une minute de cinema is inspired by UniCredit Bank. The entrance to the screening on 27th October is free of admission.
The complete program of the tenth edition of Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest is available on the site.
At PRO Cinema, Elvire Popesco Cinema, Peasant Museum Cinema, Romanian National Museum of Art – Auditorium Hall, the tickets prces are 15 lei for tickets purchased by 18thOctober and 20 lei fro tickets purchased during the festival (18th – 27th October 2019).
At Union Cinematheque tickets cost 10 lei or 8, 5, 3 lei for subscription holders.
Tickets can be purchased from Eventbook.ro, the Eventbook headquarters in Actor Ion Brezoianu Street 21, the Eventbook network and from the cash desks of Elvire Popesco Cinema, Peasant Museum Cinema and Union Cinematheque. More details about tickets can be found on the site.
Keep up to date with the latest news regarding the tenth edition of Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest, on the official website filmedefestival.ro and on the official Facebook page.
Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest is presented by Orange Romania, a traditional partner of the event.
Official Car of the Festival: Renault.
With the support of: Catena, Apa Nova, Groupama Asigurări.
The tenth edition of Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest is organized by the Cinemascop Association and Voodoo Films, in partnership with Embassy of France and the French Institute in Bucharest.
Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest is a cultural project financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Identity, the National Centre of Cinematography, and and realized with the support of SACD / Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques.
Partners: Air France, KLM, The Romanian Cultural Institute, Europa Cinemas, Hotel Mercure, SERVE, UPS, Eventbook.
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Zile și Nopți, Elle, Observatorul Cultural, News.ro, Ziarul Metropolis, AaRC, Movienews, Igloo, Banchiza Urbană, FilmNewEurope, Cineghid, Cinemap, Agerpres, Liternet, FilmMenu.
Media coverage partner: Mediatrust
