Cannes Fest Unveils Short-Film, Student Selections

PARIS – A day ahead of the main competition films being announced for the Cannes Film Festival, the event’s short-film and Cinefondation juries, led by legendary filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, on Wednesday unveiled their selections.

The short films section in Cannes will feature Giovanni Aloi’s A Passo D’Uomo (Italy), Ran Huang’s The Administration of Glory (China), Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Invisible Spaces (Georgia), Simon Mesa-Soto’s Leidi (Colombia and the U.K.), Sergey  Pikalov’s The Last One (Azerbaijan), Petra Szocs’ The Execution (Hungary and Romania), Clement Trehin-Lalanne’s Aissa (France), Laura Wandel’s Les Corps Etrangers (Belgium), Hallvar Witzo’s Yes We Love (Norway) and Happo-En from Japanese directing team Sato Masiko, Ohara Takayoshi, Seki Yutaro, Toyota Masayuki and Hirase Kentaro.

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With a wide range of countries represented, it marks the first time Georgia and Azerbaijan have been in the mix. The committee chose from 3,450 submissions.

Cinefondation, the festival’s section dedicated to student films, selected 16 projects for its competition out of 1,631 submissions. Among them are two animated films.

More than half of the films selected were directed by women, with Egypt making its debut in this category.

The list includes U.S. entries from Max Chan (Our Blood), Reinaldo Marcus Green (Stone Cars) and Annie Silverstein (Skunk). France also had a strong showing with Pierre Clenet, Alejandro Diaz, Romain Mazevet and Stephane Paccolat’s Home Sweet Home, Meryll Hardt’s Une Vie Radieuse and Lea Mysius‘ Thunderbirds.

Other selections include Omar El Zohairy’s The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 (Egypt), Chie Kayakawa’s Niagra (Japan), Inbar Horesh’s The Visit (Israel), Stefan Ivancic’s Moonless Summer (Serbia), Daisy Jacobs’ The Bigger Picture (U.K.), Gyorgy Mor Karpati’s Provincia (Hungary), Huyn-Ju Kwon’s Breath (South Korea), Fulvio Risuleo’s Sourdough (Italy) and Singapore entries Last Trip Home from Han Fengyu and Oh Lucy! from Atsuko Hirayanagi.

The Cinefondation prizes will be handed out May 22, and the short-film winners will be announced at the main festival awards ceremony on May 24.