Cinéastes de Demain adopt diversity

by Fabien Lemercier

16/03/2012 - Laurent Cantet, Robert Guédiguian Pierre Salvadori, Cédric Kahn, Philippe le Guay, Philippe Lioret, Christian Vincent, Nicole Garcia, Anne Le Ny, Stéphane Brizé, Thomas Vincent, Jeanne Labrune, Martin Provost, Malik Chibane... The list of directors taking part in the second edition of the initiative Cinéastes de demain (lit. "Tomorrow's Directors") is looking good. Their goal? "To forcefully defend our cinema's diversity and first films" through a filmmaker (having already made at least three films) adopting a first, second, or third feature film project.

"We all know the importance of someone's three first films, as well as the fragility of these low-budget low-release French productions," explained the directors involved. "In a time when some cinema owners are developping a zapping and VoD culture in their cinemas, this bad behaviour is seriously endangering the health of our cultural diversity." But this doesn't mean that the group will interfere in the industry: "Cinéastes de Demain is not a structural response to this negative evolution in our cinematographic production, other professional organisations are responsible for that."

Last year, Tonie Marshall, Agnès Jaoui, and Cédric Klapisch respectively chose Tomboy [trailer, film focus] by Céline Sciamma, 18 Years Old and Rising [trailer] by Frédéric Louf, and Declaration of War [trailer] by Valérie Donzelli. Each were transformed into successes on screen, notably thanks to UGC and Canal +, partners of the initiative.

(Translated from French)