News

One of those tantalising shorts that, though self-contained, feels as though it could easily expand into a feature, Brazilian director Bernardo Ale Abinader and French filmmaker Sharon Hakim immediately immerse us in the world of Marjorie (Isabela Catão) as she walks over sand dunes hunting for a precious herb.

A near-future environmental crisis is suggested rather than overtly stated, first by a piece of plastic caught around Cassia’s leg and later, more strongly, when she returns to her elderly mentor Marjorie (Esther de Paula).

Marjorie is a healer who we see removing pieces of poisonous plastic from her patients – a striking way of bringing home the way that the environmental crisis is getting literally under our skins.

This seems to be the first role for de Paula, which seems remarkable given how good she is. The older star shares the sort of luminosity displayed by Denise Weinberg in...

“Unspoken,” “Genealogy of Violence,” and “Aferrado” have won a trio of top honors at this year’s Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, with each title winning a grand prize in the respective international, national and lab competitions.

Best known for his acting work on Australian film and television, “Unspoken” director Damian Walshe-Howling can now burnish his behind-the-camera bona fides with Clermont-Ferrand’s top international trophy. Set in late-70s Sydney, the film follows a young, Croatian born woman whose life spins out into chaos as Croatian independence protests overtake her adopted hometown.

Led by Quebecois star Marc-André Grondin (“C.R.A.Z.Y.”) and directed by Pier-Philippe Chevigny, the slaughterhouse-set slow-boil “Mercenary” won a special jury prize, while Maha Haj’s Locarno-winner “Upshot” can now add a Clermont-Ferrand audience prize to a long list of honors.

U.K.-based duo Zhang & Knight claimed two prizes for their film “A Bear Remembers,” taking home...

Unlike other showcases with a strong market component, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival does not require selected films to arrive as world premieres. That choice stems as much from allegiance to a devoted local audience that expects the best as from an understanding of wider industry dynamics.

“Our market also needs high standards,” says programmer and coordinator Julie Rousson. “For filmmakers, experiencing a short film screened in a packed, reactive hall is unique—it’s an industry moment and a public one, and that combination can only help filmmakers gain greater visibility and industry acclaim.”

Titles like Andrea Gatopoulos’s AI-assisted sci-fi freak-out “The Eggregores’ Theory” can first bank esteem across an international circuit in order to then hit the French festival of festivals – and its attending market – as an already hot proposition. And out of Clermont-Ferrand, a world of opportunity awaits.

Below are ten buzz titles reaching Clermont-Ferrand this year.