Flanked by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Paolo Moretti, Claudine Nougaret and Vladimir Perišić, the Belgian actress Lubna Azabal will award the Short Film Palme d’or and the 3 La Cinef prizes, the Festival de Cannes’ selection dedicated to student films. The Jury will discover the 11 films in the Short Film Competition and the 18 films in La Cinef selection unveiled today.

JURY MEMBERS OF THE SHORT FILM AND LA CINEF

LUBNA AZABAL – President

Actress
Belgium

After attending the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Lubna Azabal began her acting career in theater. In 1997, she got her first role in front of the camera in Vincent Lannoo’s short film J’adore le cinéma (I Love the Movies). She went on to work with directors such as Michel Deville, Ridley Scott, André Téchiné, Nadir Moknèche and Denis Villeneuve. She was noticed for her performance in Tony Gatlif’s Exils, which won Best Director Award at the Festival de Cannes in 2004. In 2018, she returned to Cannes with director Meryem Benm’Barek’s Sofia, which won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Screenplay. In 2019, she presented Adam by Maryam Touzani, with whom she was back in Cannes in 2022 for The Blue Caftan, which earned her a third Magritte Award for Best Actress in 2024.

MARIE-CASTILLE MENTION-SCHAAR

Director, screenwriter, producer
France

Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar began her career in the U.S. as deputy international editor at The Hollywood Reporter, then moved to Columbia Pictures to manage remake projects. Returning to France in 1994, she produced some twenty films through her production companies Vendredi and Willow. After co-writing La Première Etoile, she wrote and directed her first film Ma première fois (2011), followed by Bowling (2012) and Once in a life time (2014). In 2015, Heaven Will Wait was selected at numerous festivals, and earned Noémie Merlant a nomination for the César for Best Emerging Actress. After All About Mothers (2017), her sixth film, A Good Man is part of the Official Selection 2020 of the Festival de Cannes. Her seventh film, Divertimento, was released in January 2023. She is the founder of the Cercle Féminin du Cinéma Français and Officier des Arts et des Lettres.

PAOLO MORETTI

Film programmer
Italy

Currently director of the cinema department at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL), director of the Grütli Cinemas in Geneva and cinema curator at the Fondazione Prada in Milan, Paolo Moretti was general delegate of the Directors’ Fortnight, the parallel selection of the Festival de Cannes, from 2018 to 2022. He worked for numerous film festivals and institutions in Europe, including the Centre Pompidou and Cinéma du Réel in Paris, the Filmoteca Española in Madrid, the Leeds International Film Festival and the Portuguese Cinematheque in Lisbon. From 2008 to 2011 he was programming advisor and deputy director of the Venice Film Festival. Between 2014 and 2019 he directed the La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival and was a member of the selection committees of the FIDMarseille and Visions du Réel festivals.

CLAUDINE NOUGARET

Producer, director
France

Claudine Nougaret is a producer and director. She started out in the film industry as a sound engineer in 1984 on Éric Rohmer’s The Green Ray. In 1992, together with Raymond Depardon, she founded Palmeraie et Désert to produce quality documentary films including Urgences, Caught in the Acts, Africa: How Are You with Pain?, The 10th Judicial Court: Judicial Hearings, Modern Life, Journal de France, France, 12 Days (presented in 2017 at the Festival de Cannes in Official Selection – Out of Competition). In 2021, she created the CST Award for best young female film technician at the Festival de Cannes, and in 2022 produced the film Feminist Riposte by Marie Perennès and Simon Depardon, a documentary about feminist collectives across France (Festival de Cannes 2022, Official Selection).

VLADIMIR PERIŠIĆ

Director, screenwriter
Serbia

Graduated from the Fémis film school, Vladimir Perišić presented his graduation film, the short Dremano oko, in the Cinéfondation selection at the Festival de Cannes 2003. In 2009, he directed his first feature film Ordinary People, an intense war film he co-wrote with Alice Winocour, in competition for the Caméra d’Or at the Festival de Cannes 2009. He returned in 2014 with Bridges of Sarajevo, screened in Special Screenings, a collective work by thirteen renowned European filmmakers on the history of the Bosnian capital, for which he directed Our Shadow Will. His latest film, Lost Country (2023), is a critically acclaimed intimate political chronicle. In parallel, he has been one of the programmers of the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival since 2011.

“Traveler, there is no path. The path is made by walking.” Antonio Machado. The Festival de Cannes is one of those paths we dream of crossing. The focus on young filmmakers presenting their short films, and the paths they have taken to get there, honor me. I can’t wait to discover the richness of it all. It’s a journey that I want to be demanding and kind, short after short, step after step. To be selected in this mythical place is a message of love, a worldwide recognition, and to preside over it is a source of pride.

LUBNA AZABAL
Short films and La Cinef Jury President

THE SHORT FILMS COMPETITION

Selected from 4 420 films, 11 shorts will be presented this year in Competition, coming from 10 countries : Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Kosovo, Lithuania, Portugal and the United States. The Short Film Palme d’or will be handed by the Jury chaired by Lubna Azabal, Saturday, May 25, during the closing ceremony of the 77th Festival de Cannes.

VOLCELEST
Éric Briche
France – 15′

OOTIDĖ
(Ootid)
Razumaitė Eglė
Lithuania – 9′

SANKI YOXSAN
Azer Guliev
Azerbaijan – 15′

LES BELLES CICATRICES
Raphaël Jouzeau
France – 15′

RRUGËS
(On The Way)
Samir Karahoda
Kosovo – 15′

ACROSS THE WATERS
Viv Li
China – 15′

PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS
Alison McAlpine
Canada – 15′

TEA
Blake Rice
United States – 12′

AMARELA
(Yellow)
André Hayato Saito
Brazil – 15′

THE MAN WHO COULD NOT REMAIN SILENT
Nebojša Slijepčević
Croatia – 13′

BAD FOR A MOMENT
(Mau Por Um Momento)
Daniel Soares
Portugal – 15′

LA CINEF SELECTION

For its 27th edition La Cinef has selected 18 shorts (14 live-action and 4 animated films) from among the 2,263 submitted by film schools all over the world. This year’s programme reflects the geographic mobility of film students, with a Singaporean director in Australia, an Indian and a Lithuanian in the UK, a Russian in the Czech Republic and three shorts made at American schools by Russian, Chinese and British filmmakers.

The Jury will hand over La Cinef prizes at a ceremony preceding the screening of the awarded films on Thursday 23 May in the Buñuel Theatre.

CROW MAN
Yohann Abdelnour
ALBA – Lebanon – 8′

BANISHED LOVE
Xiwen Cong
Beijing Film Academy – China – 40′

PRAEIS (IT’LL PASS)
Dovydas Drakšas
London Film School – United Kingdom – 27′

ECHOES
Robinson Drossos
ENSAD – France – 7′

MAUVAIS COTON (US AND THEM)
Nicolas Dumaret
La Fémis – France – 20′

TERMINAL
East Elliott
NYU – United States of America – 18′

ELEVACIÓN  
Gabriel Esdras
Universidad de Guadalajara – Mexico – 28′

IN SPIRITO
Nicolò Folin
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Italy – 14′

THE DEER’S TOOTH
Saif Hammash
Dar Al-Kalima University – Palestine – 16′

PLEVEL (WEEDS)
Pola Kazak
FAMO – Czech Republic – 14′

THE CHAOS SHE LEFT BEHIND
Nikos Kolioukos
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Greece – 33′

FOREST OF ECHOES
Yoori Lim
Korea National University of Arts – South Korea – 22′

BUNNYHOOD
Mansi Maheshwari
NFTS – United Kingdom – 9′

SUNFLOWERS WERE THE FIRST ONES TO KNOW…
Chidananda S Naik
FTII, Pune – India – 16′

WITHERED BLOSSOMS
Lionel Seah
AFTRS – Australia – 14′

OUT THE WINDOW THROUGH THE WALL
Asya Segalovich
Columbia University – United States of America – 22′

THREE
Amie Song
Columbia University – United States of America – 15′

IT’S NOT TIME FOR POP
Amit Vaknin
Tel Aviv University – Israel – 14′

The 77th Festival de Cannes will take place from Tuesday May 14 to Saturday May 25, 2024.

The Festival de Cannes announces eight projects as a part of the Immersive Competition including collective location-based virtual reality and mixed reality experiences, and projection mapping and holographic works. These carefully selected immersive works showcase the cutting edge of this new era in storytelling, challenging convention, embracing new technologies, and above all celebrating new artists as well as old.

IMMERSIVE COMPETITION

EN AMOUR

France

Claire Bardainne, Adrien Mondot, Laurent Bardainne

Casting Claire Bardainne (voice over), November Ultra (singing voice)

Produced by Adrien M & Claire B, Ekleroshock records

EVOLVER

UK, France, United States French Premiere

Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin, Robin McNicholas

Casting Cate Blanchett (voice)
Produced by Marshmallow Laser Feast, Atlas V, Pressman Film, Orange, Bia-Echo Foundation

HUMAN VIOLINS: PRELUDE (multi-user version)

Romania, France
World Premiere
Ioana Mischie

Casting Cabiria Morgenstern (English Voice)
Produced by Storyscapes, Da Prod, Studioset

MAYA: THE BIRTH OF A SUPERHERO

UK, France, United States European Premiere

Poulomi Basu, CJ Clarke

Casting Indira Varma, Kathy Packianathan (French voices), Indira Varma, Charithra Chandran (English voices), Florrie Antoniou (voices)

Produced by Just Another Production Company, Floréal, Meta VR for Good, France Télévisions, Francetv Storylab, Meta

COLORED

France, Taiwan

Tania de Montaigne, Stéphane Foenkinos, Pierre-Alain Giraud

Casting Tania de Montaigne, Rebecca Naluyange, Keril Daniel Elombe, Véronique Bailey, Jona Kraft, Sergei Laev, Mbongiseni Kunene, Craig Thomas Crawford, John Harve Jackson, Gwei Lun-Mei (Mandarin voice), Susanna Dimitri (Italian voice).

Produced by Novaya, Flash Forward Entertainment, Centre Pompidou

TELOS I

Canada, Sweden, Denmark World Premiere

Dorotea Saykaly, Emil Dam Seidel

Produced by Dorotea Saykaly, Emil Dam Seidel

Casting Dorotea Saykaly

THE ROAMING

France, Luxembourg, Canada

Mathieu Pradat

Casting Axel Beaumont, Pierre Tallaron, Tony Sanial, Mila Pousséo, Chloé Froget, Anne Klein, Marianne Bourg

Produced by La prairie productions, Wild Fang Films, Normal Studio, Small Creative

TRAVERSING THE MIST

Taiwan

Tung-Yen Chou Casting Jing-Yan Lin

Produced by Very Theatre

IMMERSIVE SELECTION

Non-competitive works

Part of the Immersive Selection, six non-competitive works will be featured at the exhibition exploring the evolution of the medium and drawing parallels between virtual reality, virtual production, cinema and collective storytelling.

BATTLESCAR

France, United States

Martin Allais, Nico Casavecchia
Casting Dawson (English voice), Jehnny Beth (French voice), Lo Rivera (German voice)
Produced by Atlas V, Albyon, 1STAveMachine, ARTE France, Oculus, Ryot

EMPEROR

France, Germany

Marion Burger, Ilan J. Cohen

Casting Olivia Cooke (English voice), Vimala Pons (French voice)

Produced by Atlas V, Reynard Films, France Télévisions

GLOOMY

EYES Argentina, France, United States

Fernando Maldonado, Jorge Tereso

Casting Tahar Rahim (French voice), Colin Farrell (English voice), Max Riemelt (German voice), Jorge Drexler (Spanish voice), Jam Hsiao (Mandarin voice)

Produced by Atlas V, 3dar, ARTE France, HTC, Ryot

MISSING PICTURES: NAOMI KAWASE

France, UK, Taiwan, Luxembourg, South Korea

Clément Deneux

Casting Naomi Kawase

Produced by Atlas V, ARTE France, BBC, PTS, Serendipity Films, Wild Fang Films, Giioii

NOTES ON BLINDNESS

France, UK

Arnaud Colinart, Amaury La Burthe, Peter Middleton, James Spinney

Casting John Hull (English version), Lambert Wilson (French version)

Produced by Ex Nihilo, ARTE France, Archer’s Mark, Novelab

 

SPHERES

United States, France

Eliza McNitt
Casting Jessica Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown, Patti Smith
Produced by Protozoa Pictures, City Lights, Crime of Curiosity, Atlas V

The Best Immersive Work Award will be presented by the President of the Jury at the Closing Ceremony on May 23. The Compétition Immersive of the Festival de Cannes is a new competition dedicated to immersive works, the first edition of which will be held from May 15-24, 2024 at the Cannes Cineum and the Université Côte d’Azur, Georges Méliès Campus.

The 77th Festival de Cannes will take place from Tuesday May 14 to Saturday May 25, 2024.

Studio Ghibli Honorary Palme d’or of the 77th Cannes Film Festival APRIL 17, 2024 The Festival de Cannes is honoring a cinema legend, awarding its Honorary Palme d’or for the first time to a group: Studio Ghibli.

Alongside the Hollywood greats, the Japanese studio embodied by two superb storytellers, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and a host of cult characters, has unleashed a fresh wind on animated film over the past four decades.

I am truly honored and delighted that the studio is awarded the Honorary Palme d’or,” declares Toshio Suzuki, co-founder of the Studio Ghibli. “I would like to thank the Festival de Cannes from the bottom of my heart. Forty years ago, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and I established Studio Ghibli with the desire to bring high-level, high-quality animation to children and adults of all ages. Today, our films are watched by people all over the world, and many visitors come to the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka and Ghibli Park to experience the world of our films for themselves. We have truly come a long way for Studio Ghibli to become such a big organization. Although Miyazaki and I have aged considerably, I am sure that Studio Ghibli will continue to take on new challenges, led by the staff who will carry on the spirit of the company. It would be my greatest pleasure if you look forward to what’s next.”

With this Honorary Palme d’or, Studio Ghibli joins those who have inspired cinematography, whom the Festival de Cannes celebrates every year. “For the first time in our history, it’s not a person but an institution that we have chosen to celebrate,” said Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate. “Like all the icons of the Seventh Art, these characters populate our imaginations with prolific, colorful universes and sensitive, engaging narrations. With Ghibli, Japanese animation stands as one of the great adventures of cinephilia, between tradition and modernity”.

The Festival de Cannes was an early explorer of the animated film adventure. In the early years, Walt Disney productions presented short films (1946) and the feature Dumbo (1947). In 1953, Walt Disney himself took Peter Pan to the Croisette, where René Laloux won a special Jury Prize in 1973 for his first feature, Fantastic Planet. After a long absence, animation returned to Cannes in force with Shrek (2001) and Shrek 2 (2004), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), Persepolis (2007), Waltz with Bashir (2008), which all received awards in the Competition, or even Up, which opened the Festival in 2009. Many other films, such as Kirikou and the Wild Beasts, Inside Out, The Summit of the Gods and more recently, Elemental, and Robot Dreams have also left their mark. Moreover, Un Certain Regard welcomed The Red Turtle (2016), Studios Ghibli’s first collaboration with a European production company.

It all began 40 years ago. The success of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 enabled him to establish Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985. They achieved what seemed to be an impossible feat: independently producing pure masterpieces and conquering the mass market. Producer Toshio Suzuki, a key studio member from the start and soon assuming a full time role, he managed the studio with formidable efficiency, establishing perfect complementarity between the projects of Miyazaki and Takahata, by turns producers and directors.

In 1988, with the simultaneous release of Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro, these outstanding creative artists achieved a double success. In 1992, Studio Ghibli was able to begin financing its own feature films with Porco Rosso. In the early years, only the two founders directed their films, but gradually young auteurs such as Goro Miyazaki and Hiromasa Yonebayashi distinguished themselves and joined the Studio.

In four decades and over twenty feature films, Studio Ghibli won over its audiences with works imbued with poetry and with humanistic and environmental commitments. With Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbors the Yamadas, The Wind Rises and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, Studio Ghibli has delivered stories that are as personal as they are universal. They have won prestigious awards, including both the Golden Bear and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Spirited Away, and more recently another Oscar for The Boy and the Heron.

In Europe as in the United States, these films are among the animators’ most acclaimed work, between art for art and the commercial challenges of the industry. They are true models, as much for the quality of their writing, directing and animation as for their commitment to extensive aesthetic aspirations. In 2001, the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka opened on the outskirts of Tokyo to showcase the animators’ work and rich heritage, as well as to show short films created for the museum, thus asserting the Studio’s cultural importance. In 2022, the Ghibli Park, a hybrid park facility expressing the world of Studio Ghibli, opened in Aichi Prefecture. Goro Miyazaki, the first Director of the Ghibli Museum, was appointed the Creative Development Director to oversee the park construction.