21/11/2014 - Tomorrow sees the kick-off of the 29th edition of the festival that specialises in young, independent and groundbreaking cinema

Abdellatif Kechiche, Darren Aronofsky, Lars Von Trier, Brillante Mendoza, Olivier Assayas, Laurent Cantet, Leos Carax, Michelangelo Frammartino, Pedro Costa, Albert Serra, Corneliu Porumboiu, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Wang Chao: since it was founded, the Belfort Entrevues Film Festival has always shone a spotlight on a variety of debut movies by filmmakers whose names are now well known all over the world. Focusing on independent and groundbreaking cinema, the event will get its 29^th edition under way tomorrow.

Featuring on the programme, which this year runs until 30 November, is an international competition involving 12 features, including Hide and Seek [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Joanna Coates, winner of the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at Edinburgh. The movie centres on four young Londoners who head off to live in a cottage in the remote English countryside, engaging in organised swinging and attaining a state of collective happiness that is called into question by the arrival of a stranger.

Also in the running is the Franco-Portuguese co-production O que vai ao lume? by Stefan Libiot, revolving around an inquiry carried out in a Portuguese fishing village following the disappearance of the narrator’s lover, who possibly threw himself off the top of a cliff. Lastly, among the documentary hopefuls (which are taking part in the same competition as the fiction films) is the Austrian title And There We Are, in the Middle [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sebastian Brameshuber and three French productions: Sud Eau Nord Déplacer [+see also:
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film profile] by Antoine Boutet (unveiled at Locarno – set to be released in theatres on 28 January 2015), Letters to Max [+see also:
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film profile] by Eric Baudelaire (which screened at Toronto) and Je suis le peuple by Anna Roussillon. The feature-film competition is rounded off by titles hailing from the United States, Brazil, India, Iran and Algeria.

The Belfort Festival will also be repeating the “Double Feature” setup that was inaugurated last year with John Carpenter films. This time around, it’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s turn, and he will be making the trip to the Franche-Comté region for the occasion. He has complemented each of his movies with a work plucked from his own personal film library.

Also of note is the La Fabbrica sidebar, featuring Tony Gatlif as a special guest; the La Tranversale section, dedicated to the topic of time travel; France’s first-ever complete retrospective of the films of the master of animation Satoshi Kon; a number of remakes by Jean-Claude Brisseau (three versions of his short film Des Jeunes femmes disparaissent, shot in black-and-white 8mm in 1973, in colour Super 8 in 1976 and in 3D in 2014); and Cavalier Express, a fresh interpretation of eight shorts by Alain Cavalier in the form of a single story.

The programme is rounded off by several premieres, including Vincent [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Thomas Salvador (read the review), Gente de bien [+see also:
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film profile] by Franco Lolli (read the review), Gaby Baby Doll [+see also:
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film profile] by Sophie Letourneur, New Territories [+see also:
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film profile] by Fabianny Deschamps, the Franco-Swiss documentary Iranian [+see also:
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film profile] by Mehran Tamadon and Kommunisten + La guerre d'Algérie by Jean-Marie Straub.

(Translated from French)