19/05/2015 - CANNES NEXT: The CNC brought out director Céline Sciamma, who talked about innovation, virtual reality and audience engagement at NEXT 2015

In the heat of Monday afternoon, one of the most-attended special sessions of this year's edition of NEXT took place at the Cannes Film Market.

France's CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée), a public administrative organisation, introduced a very special guest: world-famous screenwriter and director Céline Sciamma, who addressed the latest trends in cross-media creation and audience engagement.

"When I received the proposal to become the new president of the Commission for New Media, I didn't think twice about it. I've always had a passion for cinema, TV, games and comics, and I also grew up in a family of developers. I accepted because I think innovation must be supported."

Sciamma then went on to illustrate the New Media Fund's schemes, such as the one for producers and creators of multi-platform projects (worth €50,000) and another intended for app developers, who will be mentored through the writing and the development of their projects (€20,000).

"Technology is crucial, and it needs support," continued Sciamma, "but all great projects come from great ideas – no matter how geeky the creators might be."

She then illustrated the most game-changing projects that she has found herself dealing with, such as Gaza Sderot by Serge Gordey. "The idea was very simple, but it was a great example of story, and also one of the first web documentaries to become an interactive experience – everything was told in a different way," she added.

Another project that meant a lot to the French director was Brett Gaylor's Do Not Track, a personalised web documentary series that shows the user how information about him or her is collected and used. "Not every project tackles important issues and still engages the audience like this one. It could have been a regular documentary about tracking, but the creators wanted the user to be at the core of the story, which constantly changes according to the tracked info – thus appealing to young audiences, who are not usually keen on documentaries."