Stars of the Slalom

It was like the Palme d’Or meeting the Olympics medals, as Les Arcs hosted the annual Ski Cup challenge for film industry attendees.

Around 20 plucky producers, directors and other industry experts braved testing conditions to take part in the timed slalom event. The tension was palpable and the competition fierce. Last year, Danes finished first and second, with Rezo’s Antoine Denis the lone French skiier on the podium in third. But Denis was back for revenge and this year swept to victory in an impressive time of 34.48s over Grégory Faes (34.59s) of Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (34.8s).

European Producers Club managing director Alexandra Lebret gallantly took first place in the women’s competition, despite suffering injury earlier in the day.

There were also impressive performances from the likes of Les Arcs artistic director Frederic Boyer and Les Arcs Professional Events Manager Jeremy Zelnick, who finished just outside the places. (Team Screen would have obviously been among the contenders but someone had to do the reporting.)

All competitors were awarded a bottle of the region’s famous Chartreuse spirit at an awards-do in favourite local bar, O’Chaud.