New French Shorts 2020 is made available through Young French Cinema, a program of UniFrance and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. This showcase of some of the most exciting new cinematic voices from France runs the gamut from animation to romance to absurdist comedy. Revel in these petite Gallic pleasures, including award winners from Cannes, Locarno, and Palm Springs ShortFest.
A single feature-length program of delightful, funny, charming, provocative festival favorite French shorts !
Ahmed's Song by Foued Mansour - 2018, France, 30 min.
One day Ahmed, employed at the public baths and nearing retirement, encounters Mike, a teenager adrift. Between the bath house walls, in a place on the point of disappearing, a strange relationship will develop between these two fractured souls.
Winner of Bridging the Borders Award at the Palm Springs International ShortFest 2019
The Distance Between Us and the Sky Director by Vasilis Kekatos - 2019, France, 9 min.
Two strangers meet for the first time one night in a remote gas station. The first one fills up his car, while the second one lacks a few euros necessary to get home. The two men will haggle over the price of what separates them from a story.
Winner of Short Film Palme d'Or and Queer Palme at Cannes 2019.
The Glorious Acceptance Speech of Nicolas Chauvin by Benjamin Crotty - 2018, France, 26 min.
During his acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award, Nicolas Chauvin - farmer soldier, veteran of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the father of chauvinism - embarks on a grand monologue, sending him back in time and space. Until, at a bend on a moonlit road, a spectral encounter changes the course of his non-existence.
Selected at the 2018 New York Film Festival | Winner of Mantarraya Award at the 2018 Locarno International Film Festival.
Magnetic Harvest by Marine Levéel - 2018, France, 24 min.
In close up, Mickaël seems to move in a nebula of desires : find his lost pig, get his organic farming certification, stop being lonely in a rape desert. But from afar, Mickaël looks more like a magnet attracted to Paul.
Sheep, Wolf, and a Cup of Tea... by Marion Lacourt - 2019, France, 12 min.
At night, while family members indulge in curious rituals before sleeping, a child invokes a wolf from the bottom of a box hidden under his bed. Disturbing sheep then besiege the door of his bedroom…
Selected at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival
The Tears Thing by Clémence Poésy - 2019, France, 25 min.
Florence is an actress. Preparations for her new role will challenge her in a way she could never have seen coming…
Selected at the 2019 Venice Film Festival
Tuesday From 8 to 6 by Cecilia de Arce - 2019, France, 26 min.
Névine, a secondary school monitor, is fully committed to her somewhat thankless day job, dealing with teachers, administration and students. Logan, a pupil she is fond of, insists on getting a cap back from lost and found. She has no idea of the consequences of her gesture.
Selected at the 2019 Cannes Critics Week.
New French Shorts 2020 opens on May 15 on Kino Marquee, Kino Lorber's initiative that creates "virtual cinemas" for temporarily closed independent theaters.
