email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

FESTIVALS / AWARDS France

Up-and-coming young directors selected for Angers’ Premiers Plans Film Festival move to an online showcase

by 

- The 33rd edition of the Anjou festival will unspool online from 25 to 31 January, notably offering up a competition of nine feature films, which will be assessed by a jury helmed by Pierre Salvadori

Up-and-coming young directors selected for Angers’ Premiers Plans Film Festival move to an online showcase
Digger by Georgis Grigorakis

Health-related restrictions and cinema closures in France have left the 33rd edition of Angers’ Premiers Plans Film Festival (steered by General Delegate and Artistic Director Claude-Éric Poiroux) with no option but to unfold virtually between 25 and 31 January 2021. Consequently, thanks to a partnership with La Vingt-Cinquième Heure, viewers will be able to enjoy the debut films competing in the event, free of charge and online (in accordance with maximum viewer capacities agreed in advance with rightholders). The Angers team were also keen on preserving the chronological order of the festival’s screenings, at a rate of two seances a day, ensuring audiences discover the same film at the same time.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Presided over by Pierre Salvadori and composed of fellow filmmakers Leyla Bouzid, Elsa Amiel and Filippo Meneghetti, the jury of the First European Feature Film Competition will have to decide between nine pretenders. Standing tall among these is Digger [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Georgis Grigorakis
film profile
]
by Greece’s Georgis Grigorakis (discovered in the Berlinale’s Panorama line-up), Ghosts [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Turkey’s Azra Deniz Okyay (the winner of the Grand Prize at Venice’s Critics’ Week – a film co-produced by France and Qatar), Mia Misses Her Revenge [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bogdan Theodor Olteanu
film profile
]
by Romania’s Bogdan Theodor Olteanu, The Whaler Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philipp Yuryev
film profile
]
by Russian director Philipp Yuryev (which scooped the Director’s Award at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori last September), Ibrahim [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by France’s Samir Guesmi (awarded the 2020 Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection label and victorious in Angoulême) and Levitation of Princess Karnak [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by his compatriot Adrien Genoudet. Three documentaries will round off the selection: The Earth Is Blue as an Orange [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iryna Tsilyk
film profile
]
by Ukrainian director Iryna Tsilyk (awarded a trophy at Sundance), Petit Samedi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paloma Sermon Daï
film profile
]
by Paloma Sermon-Daï (which enjoyed its premiere at the Berlinale Forum and bagged the Bayard d’Or in Namur) and The Kiosk [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by France’s Alexandra Pianelli.

Three further competitions are on the festival agenda, for short films, film schools and animated works (European First Animated Films) respectively, and each will be allocated their own separate jury.

In terms of the tribute to Chantal Akerman, which was scheduled to unfold in cinemas via restored film copies, this event will be pushed back to a later date falling somewhere in the first half of 2021. The chosen films will be shown at the Forum des Images and at the 400 Coups Cinema in the presence of the speakers who previously agreed to participate in the associated presentations and debates.

For two weeks beginning 25 January, sector professionals and members of the press (both French and international) will have access to the full range of films competing in the festival, English subtitles included, via Angers’ dedicated platform on Festival Scope Pro (access is free of charge and limited to 1,000 badgeholders).

Last but not least, the 12 films gracing the Chantal Akerman and Federico Fellini retrospectives and the Escape line-up will be accessible online via LaCinetek in exchange for a €7 Festival Pass. The event will subsequently find its way back to cinemas once they’ve reopened, with screenings set to continue until 31 August (notably involving a tribute to German filmmaker Christian Petzold).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy