Cannes’ ACID sidebar event unveiled its 2020 program on Thursday. It includes nine films that will not screen in Cannes but have the support of the sidebar event for up-and-coming and alternative cinema.
ACID, like the official Cannes Film Festival and the Critics’ Week section, has chosen to present an official selection of films this year, despite having to cancel all physical events due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The ACID selection includes Jessé Miceli’s Coalesce, Ilan Klipper’s Tightrope Walkers, The Seeds We Sow from director Nathan Nicholovitch, Michele Pennetta’s L Mio Corpo, Marie Dumora’s Far From You I Grew, Nora Martirosyan’s Should the Wind Fall, The Last Days of Spring from director Isabel Lamberti, Bojena Horackova’s Walden and The Last Hillbilly from directors Diane Sara Bouzgarrou and Thomas Jenkoe.
The ACID team will help promote the films at the online Cannes film market, which runs from June 22 through June 26 and will hold screenings for the titles for industry professionals and cinema exhibitors. It will also hold public screenings of the selection at the Luxor theater in Paris from Sept. 25 through Sept. 29, at the Comoedia in Lyon from Oct. 2 until Oct. 4 and at the Gyptis and La Baleine cinemas in Marseille from Oct. 8-Oct. 11. The selection will also tour to partner festivals in France and abroad.
After the Cannes Festival was forced to cancel because of the pandemic, organizers chose to create a special Cannes 2020 selection of films — which includes Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Steve McQueen-directed titles Mangrove and Lovers Rock and Pixar’s animated feature Soul — that will travel to partner festivals worldwide and can use the iconic Cannes brand in their marketing.