Road to Cannes: all the TFL Alumni on the Croisette

May 4, 2015

The 68th Cannes Film Festival is about to begin and we are happy to announce the important presence of members of the TorinoFilmLab community in its Official Selection, as well as in the Critics’ Week.

First and foremost, Script&Pitch 2012 Alumnus Laszlo Nemes (Hungary) has been selected in Competition with his debut feature SON OF SAUL, an especially prestigious achievement, as it is the only first film in the 2015 main competition of the world number one festival. A great source of pride is that the film project has involved several members of the TorinoFilmLab network: Script&Pitch 2013 Alumnus Matthieu Taponier collaborated as script consultant and editor of the film, and FrameWork tutor Matyas Erdely was the cinematographer.

Then we are extremely proud to announce that one of the 7 films selected to participate in the Competition of the 54th edition of Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week is the French director Clément Cogitore’s debut feature THE WAKHAN FRONT, developed at Script&Pitch 2012. This film is produced by FrameWork 2011 Alumnus Jean-Christophe Reymond for Kazak Productions, and co-produced by Belgian production house, Tarantula. International sales will be handled by Indie Sales (France).

We are pleased that the 7-title Critics’ Week Competition line-up also features three more TorinoFilmLab Alumni: Interchange 2013 brother-duo Arab & Tarzan Abunasser (Palestine) will participate with their debut feature DÉGRADÉ, one of the first films supported by the Breizh Film Fund, created in 2014 by TFL’s long-time Breton partner Le Groupe Ouest (France); and of Italian Script&Pitch 2015 participant Jonas Carpignano with his debut MEDITERRANEA.

The strong presence in Cannes Film Festival’s oldest sidebar makes us proud also because TorinoFilmLab will collaborate again with the Critics’ Week for the second edition of Next Step, the programme aimed at supporting the 10 short filmmakers discovered in 2015 by La Semaine de la Critique as they branch out into feature films. With the participation to Next Step, TFL confirms the constant attention to the training of young professionals on the film scene.

Back to the Official Selection, in Un Certain Regard, there will be a strong representation of TorinoFilmLab: FrameWork 2014 Alumna Ankica Juric Tilic (Kinorama) produced THE HIGH SUN by Dalibor Matanic; and our returning tutor Razvan Radulescu co-wrote Radu Muntean’s ONE FLOOR BELOW, co-produced by French FrameWork 2010 Alumnus François D’Artemare for Les Films de l’après-midi.

There is more, because we are pleased to announce that AVE MARIA by Alumnus Basil Khalil (Interchange 2010) is selected in the Short Film Competition. This short is co-produced by FrameWork Alumnus 2008 Helge Albers for Flying Moon Filmproduktion.