It
may sound like hyperbole, but where quality of offerings and required
stamina are concerned, Clermont-Ferrand's carefully curated, insanely
well-attended annual festival devoted to movies that weigh in at
under 60 minutes, really is "the Cannes of short films."
The 22nd edition runs Feb 4-12 with the prizes -- some of
them extremely generous -- handed out on the night of the 12th.
Interest in the winning films runs so high that tickets are sold
for THREE consective seatings in the 1500-seat auditorium that is
just the largest of seven venues scattered across town.
In 1999 Clermont-Ferrand drew more than 120,000 film lovers
in 8 days. Even seasoned festival-goers are astonished by the fervor
of Clermont-Ferrand's fans and the speed with which screenings sell
out. A cheerful 'first come-first served' policy reigns, which makes
the event popular (general admission tickets are cheap), democratic
(filmmakers and press wait in line like everybody else) and, it
must be said, occasionally frustrating. The weather is rarely great
but the atmosphere is so.
A three and a half hour train ride to the south of Paris,
part-quaint, part-industrial Clermont-Ferrand, headquarters to the
Michelin Tire company, is also a university town. During the Short
Film festival one can't help but suspect that all 30,000 students
(out of a total population of 136,000) are playing hooky to go to
the movies -- many of which are projected in their lecture halls.
Although filmmakers and industry pros who travel the fest
circuit also admire the short film festivals held in Brest (European
shorts), Annecy (global animation), Angers and Poitiers (student
shorts) in France and Tampere in Finland (now in its 30th year)
Clermont-Ferrand is the largest shindig devoted solely to shorts.
The event is divided into an International and a National
competition. For the current edition, Clermont-Ferrand's programmers
received 1,925 submissions from 76 countries, with 71 films from
45 countries making the final cut. Of the 619 entries from within
France, 61 films will be screened in competition. Two separate juries
judge the two sets of contenders, which are divided up into a total
of 28 composite programs running roughly 90 minutes each.
Films in the International division are subtitled in French
and simultaneously translated into English via headphones. All of
the French-language films are also simultaneously translated into
English.
This year also marks the 15th Short Film Market. What began
as a few producers and distributors in a small room with folding
tables has blossomed into a major crossroads for familiarizing oneself
with an impressive array of national and international film catalogues
and, of course, negotiating sales.
In addition to discussions with filmmakers, Clermont-Ferrand
organizes and moderates high caliber panel discussions. This year
the fest will host a special debate on the increasing presence of
short films on the Internet, for which telecommunications execs
and representatives of leading Web sites (including U.S.-based atomfilms.com,
eurocinema.com and shortbuzz.com) are expected ( Thursday, Feb 10
from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Maison des Congrès). The other participatory
highlight, to be held on Tuesday Feb 8 in the Market, is a professional
round-table about the creative use of sound. Three closing night
prizes for Outstanding Sound Design will be awarded by France's
main professional bodies devoted to music and recording technology.
After last year's tribute to Italy, this year's major retrospective
honors short films from Africa. Clermont-Ferrand has taken a special
interest in films from black Africa for the past nine years. It's
worth noting that the fest's Grand Prize went to Denko
directed by Mohamed Camara of Guinea in 1993 and to One Sunday
Morning by Manu Kurewa of Zimbabwe in 1997. The assortment
of over 50 recent and historical African shorts promises to be both
a crash-course and an eye-opener concerning a continent whose feature
film output remains limited by scant resources.
The fest tackles a particularly interesting theme with a
retrospective devoted to short films inspired by comic strips. From
America's timeless Mutt and Jeff (dating from the
'teens) through the offshoots of Japanese "mangas," the links between
print illustrations and motion pictures -- including a sidebar on
films that use "dialogue bubbles" and "thought clouds" just like
in the funnies -- should provide valuable insight into one of the
20th century's more offbeat branches of pop culture cross-pollination.
On the political and business front, on January 20th, 60
independent producers from France's SPI (Syndicat des producteurs
independants or Union of Independent Producers) announced a "freeze"
on sales contracts for their wares beginning February 10th for a
period of one month. Their goal is to raise awareness of the growing
obstacles to properly financing short film production in France.
Prospective festival participants with allergies or respiratory
problems should be advised that vast numbers of Clermont-Ferrand
attendees smoke. Despite many years in France, this reporter can
think of no other event where she has so consistently been engulfed
in thick clouds of acrid smoke while patiently awaiting a seat for
a given program.
Although the smoke-filled vestibules of the fest may pose
an indirect health hazard to some, the festival organizers ARE to
be commended for promoting health and a serene disposition in those
of us given to blowing a gasket when forced to slog through laughable-to-approximate
translations. Clermont-Ferrand produces some of the most accurate
English translations to be found in written documentation on the
international festival circuit.
FilmFestivals.com
reporter
Lisa Nesselson
The
prizes at a glance:
NATIONAL
(FRENCH) COMPETITION
Grand Prize: Salam by Souad El-Bouhati
Special Jury Prize: Beau comme un camion
by Antony Cordier
Best Actor: Benaissa Ahaouri in Salam
Best Actress: Nathalie Boutefeu in Apesanteurs
Audience Prize: Au Bout du monde by Konstantin
Bronzit
Prix Recherche: Week-End à Tokyo by Romain
Slocombe and Pierre Tasso
Prix SACD (Best First Film) Avec Marinette
by Blandine Lenoir
Procirep Producing Prize: Les Films du Kiosque
AtomFilms Prize (Best Animation) Le Puits
by Jerome Boulbes
Youth Jury Prize: Le Communicateur by Xavier
Mussel
Honorable Mention Youth Jury: Salam by Souad
El-Bouhati
Canal Plus Prize: Le Fetichiste by Nicolas
Klein
Prix FNAC: Au Bout du monde by Konstantin
Bronzit
Best Sound Design: A tie between Avec Marinette
by Blandine Lenoir and Week-End à Tokyo by Romain
Slocombe and Pierre Tasso
Prix de la Presse: Au Bout du monde
by Konstantin Bronzit
INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
Grand Prize: Babami Hirsizlar Caldi (The
Stolen Father) by Esen Isik (Switzerland)
Special Jury Prize: Salam by Souad El-Bouhati
(France)
Audience Prize: In Loving Memory by Audrey
O'Reilly (Ireland)
Prix Recherche: La Comtesse de Castiglione
by David Lodge (UK)
AtomFilms Prize (Best Animation): Metro by
Eric Steegstra (The Netherlands)
Youth Jury Prize: Losing Touch by Sara Gavron
(UK)
Honorable Mention International Youth Jury: Salam
by Souad El-Bouhati
Canal Plus Prize: La Comtesse de Castiglione
by David Lodge
Best Sound Design: Poetot Odmara (The
Meadow) by Mitko Panov (Macedonia)
Prix de la Presse: Hungry by Richard Clark
(UK)
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Serious
films about the repurcussions of political repression and the
consequences of immigration figured prominently among award winners
culled from entries representing 44 countries at the Clermont-Ferrand
International Festival of Short Films. The 22nd edition of the
increasingly popular event ran Feb 4-12, tallying a phenomenal
125,000 viewers. Also on the increase is the length of the shorts
on display, many of which ran between 30 and 50 minutes.
For the first time, a French film won big in both divisions
of the official competition. As one of two films from the National
Competition singled out to represent France in the separate International
division of the fest, Salam, won an unprecedented
five awards, including top honors in the French National line-up.
Former social worker Souad El-Bouhati, who was born in Morocco
but emigrated to France when she was two weeks old, took a sabbatical
year to study cinema. She must have learned something because
Salam is her very first short film.
El-Bouhati's 28 minute long French-and-Arabic language
tale of an immigrant who has worked all his life in France yet
decides to retire to a North Africa he no longer knows, also nabbed
the Special Jury Prize and a Best Actor award for Benaissa Ahaouri,
a Marseilles construction worker who also dabbles in acting. Salam
earned Honorable Mentions from both the National Youth Jury and
the International Jury.
'So,' many an attendee wondered, 'What's in the water all
those jurors were drinking?' This reporter is at a loss to explain
what, exactly, about Salam left such a strong impression
on four different sets of jurors. Certainly the idea that "guest
workers" can spend decades in their host country without sinking
true roots or feeling particularly welcome, is poignant, but El-Bouhati's
treatment is straightforward without being particularly compelling
or memorable.
Told to leave his residence for workers the minute he's
no longer working, Ali spends a few days saying good-bye to his
best friend -- a fellow Arab -- and the man's French-born daughter,
then heads for the airport to live out his remaining days in the
country of his birth, presumably Morocco. The underlying IDEA
is powerful but the film itself is moving only in fits and starts
and a far, far cry from masterful.
More affecting and more technically accomplished was Babami
Hirsizlar Caldi (The Stolen Father) which won top
honors in the International Competition. Writer-director Esen
Isik, a 30-year-old Turkish woman based in Switzerland, uses an
imaginative child's point of view to convey the subtly devastating
story of a young boy whose father has been abducted by the secret
police in an unnamed country, presumably Turkey.
Animated charmer Au Bout du Monde (The
Ends of the Earth), made in France by Russian animator Konstantin
Bronzit under a visiting artists program, won three prizes. The
dialogue-free comedy transpires on both sides of a house perched
on a peak so pointy the tiny structure see-saws whenever humans
or animals make a move. Bronzit's sense of comic timing couldn't
be better and his cartoony drawing style is very appealing. Although
the film elicits belly laughs it also functions as understated
political commentary.
David Lodge of the UK won two prizes -- the Prix Recherche
and the Canal Plus Prize -- in the International Competition for
his moody, delightfully retro La Comtesse de Castiglione,
a surreal exercise stuffed with playful camera tricks from the
silent era. The film successfully recreates the look of early
photographs and revels in the still potent "magic" of smashed
objects being made whole again via reverse cranking.
The Canal Plus Prize, French division, went to Le
Fetichiste by Nicolas Klein, the offbeat contemporary
story of a young man whose new job in an upscale shoe store puts
him into legitimate, financially sound contact with the women
whose feet he'd gladly worship for free.
In
Loving Memory by Audrey O'Reilly of Ireland won the Audience
Prize. Two undertakers witness a widow's tasteful technique for
staying in touch with her beloved dead husband in this keenly
shot and well-acted ode to undying (literally) romance.
One
of two AtomFilms Prizes for Best Animation honored Metro
by Eric Steegstra of The Netherlands. Steegstra uses featureless
ragdoll marionettes to depict with great flair and humor the crucial
moments of a soccer match in a crowded stadium -- and the less
amusing aftermath of the game.
The
Prix de la Presse singled out Hungry by Richard
Clark of the UK, in which a kindly but astonishingly obese young
man sells double-glazed windows via telephone and never ever leaves
the house, content to let his sister do his housekeeping and run
his errands. Until, that is, the man finds a kindred spirit on
a chat line.
The French Special Jury Prize went to to Antony Cordier's
autobiographical 42-minute long documentary Beau Comme un
Camion. (As Beautiful as a Truck.) The 28-year-old
Cordier, the first intellectual in a family of blue-collar workers,
examines his relatives' response to the professional path he's
taken as a student of cinema.
A
retrospective of African shorts from 15 nations gave Western viewers
a concentrated glimpse of filmmaking under close-to-impossible
conditions. Yet the relatively pampered French used the occasion
of this year's festival to complain about dwindling funds for
makers of short films in France. Minister of Culture Catherine
Trautmann attended the Market on Feb 8 to announce an additional
8 million francs ($1.3 million) will be earmarked for short film
production as part of a reform of the National Center for Cinema's
current grant system.
While
this is a step in the right direction, SPI -- the organization
for independent film and television producers, 60 of whose members
produce short films -- are clamoring for a quota system of investment
in short films, ideally pegged at 0.5% of each French television
channel's budget. (SPI points out that domestic sales of French
music have risen from 35% to 60% of total records sold since a
1994 quota required that 40% of music played on French radio be
of French origin.) At a lively press conference on Feb 10, SPI
announced a month-long freeze on sales to call attention to the
field's financial woes.
Although
some 600 short films are produced in France each year, shorts
remain the only mass entertainment category not to benefit from
government-mandated quotas. "It costs at least 13,500 francs ($2250
) a minute to produce a short," explained an SPI spokeman, "yet
those same shorts are only being bought for as little as 200 ($33)
francs a minute. We're going broke."
The
funding crisis was sparked by a Jan 20,1999 reform in the rules
governing eligibility for unemployment benefits among actors and
technicians. As a result, it's become suicidal for pros who used
to donate their services to continue to do so. And producers can't
come up with the scratch to pay cast and crew under the new rules
unless something drastic is done. "We realize this freeze is purely
symbollic -- French TV is not going to be brought to its knees
by a temporary blockage in the short film pipeline," the SPI admits.
"But short films are where the directors and technicians of tomorrow
hone their craft. If we don't call attention to the problem now,
there's going to be far fewer French shorts this time next year."
European
filmmakers, producers and distributors are leery, wary, skeptical
and slightly paranoid about making shorts available to Web entrepreneurs.
So-called "dot-coms" such as Eurocinema, AtomFilms, ShortBuzz,
Microcinema and a handful of their European counterparts were
trawling the Market and Competition for shorts with global appeal.
But it's the height of understatement to say the rights issues
are complicated.
Canal
Plus announced on Feb 10 that Internet rights will be a standard
feature of their distribution and co-production contracts from
now on, while Franco-German television channel Arte's programmer
confirmed that "We're tenacious about presenting short films with
optimum quality so I don't forsee an Arte Web site showing films
for at least three to four years, if ever." Sandrine Faucher Cassidy,
who represents the University of Southern California catalogue
of student films, says the rights issues are so complex that some
shorts are sold "for a window of as little as one month."
While
Douglas Davis of AtomFilms' London office tried to emphasize that
the Internet is "a new outlet for films, one that can generate
new revenue," many Europeans suspect they're being looked upon
like a quaint indigenous culture ripe for colonization. "If I
have a client in Brazil and a client in France both demanding
exclusive Internet rights, I can't sell the same film to both
of them," says Frederic Corvez of French distribution firm Kampai.
"The result is, I lose a sale. It's an utter morass. If one entity
wants ALL rights planetwide, they better have mighty deep pockets."
Jean-Michel
Dissard, who represents films from New York University marvels,"We're
getting approached to sell student films in bulk. 'Don't you want
to SEE the films?' I ask. 'Nah, just sell us a lot,' they say.
So their stock valuation can go up because they supposedly have
a lot of product locked down. I can't caution filmmakers enough:
if you sell your work to the Web, know what you're getting into."
If
additional proof is needed that short films matter, the Turkish
Minister of Culture forbid director Kazin Oz of Turkey-Kurdistan
to attend the fest, having judged his film, Ax (The
Land) to be "in opposition to the foreign policy of the Republic
of Turkey." The story of an elderly Kurd who refuses to budge
from his land when his fellow villagers go into exile, has been
banned in Turkey. But, as a print was already in Clermont-Ferrand,
the 28-minute film -- Turkey's lone entry -- was shown in Competition
as scheduled.
Prize
money at Clermont-Ferrand ranges from 10,000 to 180,000 francs.
New awards were instituted this year to honor sound designers
and soundtrack composers. AtomFilms inaugurated its own prizes
for outstanding animation and, in honor of the 10th anniversary
of a regional program to promote filming in the vicinity of Clermont-Ferrand,
a government official announced that the screenplay prize, currently
at 100,000 francs, will be doubled next year. The jury read 99
script proposals this year.
FilmFestivals.com
reporter
Lisa Nesselson
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