The 35th FIDMarseille international film festival and the 16th edition of FIDLab, the co-production incubator held during the festival, open today, Tuesday June 25, in southern France.
The selections embody the festival’s mission to champion discoveries and introduce innovative features to both public audiences and industry attendees with the world premieres of films by Pierre Creton and Mariano Llinás among the international competition line-up.
Creton, who has previously won the SACD prize for best French-language feature at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2023 with A Prince, is at FID with 7 Walks With Mark Brown. It is an essay on attention and friendship and plant preservation, co-directed with Vincent Barré.
Meanwhile, Kunst De Farbe marks Argentinian filmmaker Llinás’ third film in a triptych exploring themes of music, painting and cinema. His previous two features have also both screened at FID.
There are four further competitive sections: the French competition, first film competition, Flash competition and Cine+. The latter offers a a €15,000 cash prize to support the theatrical release of the winning film.
For the industry, the prestigious FIDLab will give out 10 in-kind grants, awarded by the jury made up of Romanian producer Ada Solomon, Dennis Ruh and Visions du Reel’s Madeline Robert.
It is also teaming with Eurimages to host a work space to connect film producers with distributors.
Festival director Tsveta Dobreva and FIDMarseille artistic director Cyril Neyrat talk to Screen about innovation and change, working with AI, and a few highlights from this year’s programme.
Is it getting harder or easier to programme discoveries?
Cyril Neyrat: It’s not getting harder. We have developed a deeper working relationship with young filmmakers, films in the production process. We had more difficult choices to make because we had more to choose from.
What would you particularly highlight from the programme this year?
Neyrat: In the international competition we have [Germany-Russia-China co-production] Do You Want To See Part Two? by cricri sora ren, the duo formed by Christian von Borries [The Dubai In Me, FID 2010] and AI (artificial intelligence). The film examines our world and the political fantasies that permeate it, focusing on three geographically concrete locations: so-called Communist China, Berlin and Putin’s post-2022 Russia in wartime.
How is the festival approaching the debate on AI and filmmaking?
Neyrat: For us it’s interesting if it generates new ways of thinking and if it’s possible for authors, for real filmmakers to work with it, not to be subjected to it. To use it in a critical and innovative way, then why not? That’s what Christian von Borries has done.
Have you seen a growth in film submissions from outside Europe?
Neyrat: There has been a growth in filmmaking, and filmmakers from countries outside Europe that are looking to be part of our festival. Traditionally we have strong connections with South America and Latin America, which have always been productive areas for innovative filmmaking such as Argentina, especially Brazil.
We have a Venezuelan film [Lorena Alvarado’s Lost Chapters] which is quite rare in the first film competition.
We want to work on different other areas, like sub-Saharan Africa for example, which are more difficult to scout and to connect with.
The FIDLab co-production incubator returns for its 16th edition. How has the relationship with the festival developed?
Dobreva: The relationship between FIDMarseille and FIDLab is one of the reasons we are in touch during the whole year with producers. The connection between between FID and FIDLab is there but it is important for FIDLab projects to be shown at bigger festivals. [This year films by FIDLab alumni were selected by Berlinale and Rotterdam.]
Are any FIDLab developed films in this year’s FIDMarseille lineup?
Dobreva: Not this year, no. FIDLab is not an incubator just for films to progress to being screened at FIDMarseille. It’s meant to support independent films from around the world. If these films premiere in Locarno or Berlin, it’s fantastic for us.
We also have a new event with Eurimages to try and connect film producers with distributors to open a new space for discussion between distributors and producers in Europe to find new ways of working on projects together at earlier stages, something which is not very developed at FIDLab.
Please tell us more about your programme of 32 short films picked from Some Strings, an ensemble of works from filmmakers and artists from around the world created in the aftermath of the death of Palestinian poet and teacher Refaat Alareer in Gaza.
Neyrat: The war in Gaza is of course a very sensitive issue. We decided to welcome the launch of Some Strings because it is a necessary project. The gesture to show these films off course is political, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. But we are taking good care of showing films which are not offensive, not radical. It is not the idea to take a political stance, but to welcome this worldwide, diverse artist-led initiative and the films which express a concern of all humanity for the horrors in Gaza, and a solidarity with the people.
Finally, why have you launched a publication called AfterFid?
Neyrat: AfterFid will be an annual journal. We’ll be taking a look back at some of the films from the last edition, those that we feel deserve or need to be revisited and critically examined in greater depth. It will be published every year a few months after the festival - part of this policy we are developing with Tsveta – in developing the work of FIDMarseille in support of the films and filmmakers all year long. The first issue will be published early autumn this year.
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