18/04/2016 - Julia Ducournau, Óliver Laxe, Mehmet Can Mertoglu and Davy Chou are in competition, while Justine Triet, Alessandro Comodin and Jean-Christophe Meurisse are out of competition

Four European filmmakers will be taking part in the competition at the 55th Critics’ Week, which will unspool from 12-20 May 2016 as part of the 69th Cannes Film Festival. Unveiled today by General Delegate Charles Tesson via an online press conference (watchable on the Critics’ Week website), the programme for the 2016 edition includes seven titles in competition (including five feature debuts), which will (unusually) this year be judged by a jury made up of five filmmakers (read the news).

Locking horns for the Critics’ Week Grand Prix will be France’s Julia Ducournau with Raw [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julia Ducournau
film profile] (read the article – a feature debut co-produced by Belgium), Spaniard Óliver Laxe with Mimosas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Oliver Laxe
film profile] (his second feature, following You All Are Captains [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was revealed in the 2010 Directors’ Fortnight), Turkey’s Mehmet Can Mertoglu with his feature debut, Albüm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mehmet Can Mertoglu
film profile], and Franco-Cambodian director Davy Chou with Diamond Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (his fiction feature debut, after the documentary Le Sommeil d'or [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was unveiled in the Berlinale Forum in 2012). Also of note is a title minority co-produced by France: Tramontane [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the feature debut by Lebanon’s Vatche Boulghourjian. Lastly, the competition also includes two other feature debuts hailing from Israel and Singapore, and we should highlight the complete lack of any North and South American titles on this year’s line-up. 

The 2016 selection is rounded off by three features out of competition, with In Bed with Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile] by French director Justine Triet (who turned a lot of heads with her previous opus, Act of Panic [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – read the article – toplined by Virginie Efira), which will open the Critics’ Week, and the nonconformist comedy Apnée [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jean-Christophe Meurisse, which will be presented as a special screening, as will Happy Times Will Come Soon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Italy’s Alessandro Comodin (who rose to fame with L'estate di Giacomo [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). Lastly, in celebration of its 55th anniversary, the Critics’ Week will screen two hitherto unseen films (a short by Colombian filmmaker Cesar Agusto Acevedo and a medium-length film by Israel’s Nadav Lapid), and it will be brought to a close by three shorts that mark the directorial debuts of three well-known actresses: Chloë Sevigny, Sandrine Kiberlain and Laetitia Casta. 

Here is the complete list of films selected:

Competition (Feature Films) 

Albüm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mehmet Can Mertoglu
film profile] - Mehmet Can Mertoğlu (Turkey/France/Romania)
Mimosas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Oliver Laxe
film profile] – Óliver Laxe (Spain/Morocco/France/Qatar)
Raw [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julia Ducournau
film profile] – Julia Ducournau (France/Belgium)
Tramontane [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Vatche Boulghourjian (Lebanon/France)
A Yellow Bird [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - K. Rajagopal (Singapore/France)
Diamond Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Davy Chou (Cambodia/France/Germany)
One Week and A Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Asaph Polonsky (Israel)

Special Screenings (Feature Films)

In Bed With Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile] – Justine Triet (France) (opening film)
Happy Times Will Come Soon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Alessandro Comodin (Italy/France)
Apnée [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Jean-Christophe Meurisse (France) 

Competition (Short Films)

Arnie - Rina B. Tsou (Taiwan/Philippines)
Ascensão - Pedro Peralta (Portugal)
Campo de víboras - Cristèle Alves Meira (Portugal/France)
O delírio é a redenção dos aflitos - Fellipe Fernandes (Brazil)
L’enfance d’un chef - Antoine de Bary (France)
Limbo - Konstantina Kotzamani (Greece/France)
Oh What A Wonderful Feeling - François Jaros (Canada)
Prenjak - Wregas Bhanuteja (Indonesia)
Le Soldat Vierge - Erwan Le Duc (France)
Superbia - Luca Tóth (Hungary)

Special Screenings (Short Films)

Los pasos del agua – César Augusto Acevedo (Colombia), From The Diary of A Wedding Photographer (Myomano Shel Tzalam Hatonot) – Nadav Lapid (Israel) (50+5 screening)
Bonne figure - Sandrine Kiberlain (France), En moi - Laetitia Casta (France), Kitty - Chloë Sevigny (United States) (closing screening)

(Translated from French)