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.

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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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Georgis Grigorakis
ficha de la película] by Greece’s Georgis Grigorakis (discovered in the Berlinale’s Panorama line-up), Ghosts [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] 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 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Bogdan Theodor Olteanu
ficha de la película] by Romania’s Bogdan Theodor Olteanu, The Whaler Boy [+lee también:
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entrevista: Philipp Yuryev
ficha de la película] by Russian director Philipp Yuryev (which scooped the Director’s Award at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori last September), Ibrahim [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by France’s Samir Guesmi (awarded the 2020 Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection label and victorious in Angoulême) and Levitation of Princess Karnak [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by his compatriot Adrien Genoudet. Three documentaries will round off the selection: The Earth Is Blue as an Orange [+lee también:
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entrevista: Iryna Tsilyk
ficha de la película] by Ukrainian director Iryna Tsilyk (awarded a trophy at Sundance), Petit Samedi [+lee también:
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entrevista: Paloma Sermon Daï
ficha de la película] by Paloma Sermon-Daï (which enjoyed its premiere at the Berlinale Forum and bagged the Bayard d’Or in Namur) and The Kiosk [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] 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).