08/12/2009

Specialising since 1986 in debut works, the Belfort EntreVues Film Festival describes itself as the "meeting place for bold films of yesterday, today and tomorrow". This year, the event awarded its Grand Prize for Best Feature to Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile], which won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and is representing its country in the race for the 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

But the major attraction at this edition was Sophie Letourneur’s debut feature La Vie au Ranch [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Life on the Ranch”), which picked up two accolades: the Audience Award and Best French Film. Starring Sarah Jane Sauvegrain, Mahault Mollaret, Eulalie Juster and Benjamin Siskou, the film centres on a group of girlfriends, students in their 20s who always get together on the sofa at the Ranch, the apartment shared by two of them.

Talking, drinking, smoking and dancing: that’s what young people of their age do, but there comes a time when one needs to break away from the group and make one’s own way. From Paris to Berlin, via Auvergne, this portrait of a generation of women living life to the full won over the Belfort audience with its energy and sharp humour.

Produced by Ecce Films and Rezina Production, La Vie au Ranch received pre-sales from Ciné Cinéma, backing from Soficas Cinemage 3 and Cofinova 5, support from Procirep and Angoa-Agicoa and a writing grant from Centre Images-Centre Region.

The film doesn’t yet have a theatrical distributor, but its Audience Award and emphatic praise from people such as Michel Reilhac of Arte France Cinéma could change this.

Other prize-winners at EntreVues 2009 include Portuguese director Joao Nicolau’s Song of Love and Health, which scooped the Grand Prize for Best Narrative Short; and German filmmaker Philip Widmann’s Final Destination, which triumphed in the documentary shorts category.

(Translated from French)