Visions du Réel goes to Cannes

Image: The Last Year of Darkness by Ben Mullinkosson

Visions du Réel's Team will attend Cannes Film Festival! Madeline Robert, Head of Industry and Artistic Advisor, Rebecca de Pas and Alice Riva, Members of the Selection Committee, and Astrid Silva, Head of Programming Office, will have the pleasure to represent the Festival on the French Riviera from July 9 - 13. Let’s meet!

The laureates of the Cannes Docs Award in the 2021 VdR–Pitching are Director Ben Mullinkosson and Producer Sol Ye for their project The Last Year of Darkness. They will participate in the Marché du Film with a tailored programme of encounters and meetings, amongst other spotlighted projects.

Cannes Doc Talk 
Working With Archives: Jean-Gabriel Périot's method

In parallel to the screening of Jean-Gabriel Périot's new film, Returning to Reims (Fragments) as part of the Directors' Fortnight, Visions du Réel invites the French director to discuss his long-standing work with archives.

In particular he will evoke this very freshly completed film in which archives interlace with an existing and fragmented text, allowing fiction and reality to delicately weave into one another to build a powerful political and poetic statement. He will also talk about Facing Darkness, the new project he is developing, pitched at VdR–Industry 2021 edition, which is based upon archives of filmmakers involved in the Sarajevo Siege to talk about today's representation of the historical event. The producers of the two films will join to discuss the diverse complexities of dealing with archives in film.

Speakers: Jean-Gabriel Périot, Director ; Marie-Ange Luciani, Les Films de Pierre, Producer of Returning to Reims (Fragments) & Cécile Lestrade, Alter Ego, Producer of Facing Darkness

Moderator: Rebecca de Pas, Member of the selection committee, Visions du Réel

Date: Saturday 10th of July at 4pm

Location: Marché du Film, Marina Stage (Riviera), Cannes 
 

> This talk will be live on Visions du Réel's Youtube page at 4pm <

Doc Alliance reveals the nominated films
for the Doc Alliance Awards 2021!

Image: The Stillness Syndrome by León Siminiani

Doc Alliance has announced their picks for the best documentary film talents in 2021. The winners of the Doc Alliance Awards 2021 will be announced in Cannes.

After the special 2020 Doc Alliance Award ceremony, which took place entirely online last year, the ceremony will now be returning to Cannes Film Festival, where this year's winners will be announced. The representatives of the seven key European documentary film festivals from Doc Alliance have each announced their nominations for Best Feature Film. This year, the festivals also nominated seven short documentaries.

The Doc Alliance Selection Award has been awarded since 2008 by the seven-member alliance of documentary festivals: CPH:DOX, Doclisboa, Millennium Docs Against Gravity, DOK Leipzig, FIDMarseille, Ji.hlava IDFF, and Visions du Réel. 

Visions du Réel’s picks: Looking for Horses by Stefan Pavlović and The Stillness Syndrome by León Siminiani

Image: Looking for Horses by Stefan Pavlović

Looking for Horses by Stefan Pavlović was presented at Visions du Réel 2021 in the Burning Lights Competition and won the main prize. Travelling to Bosnia in search of his origins, filmmaker Stefan Pavlović meets a solitary fisherman. One man has language impairment, the other lost his hearing during the war. Camera in hand, the director films the onset of this improbable and profound friendship. A film of inspired form that deals with communication and trauma. 

The Stillness Syndrome by León Siminiani was presented at Visions du Réel 2021 in World premiere in the International Medium Length & Short Film Competition. In 2018, a group of filmmakers calling themselves THE MOTIONLESS embark on a film about a hypothetical stillness syndrome in Colombia. Both an homage to the cinematographical universe of the Columbian filmmaker Luis Ospina and an exploration of the country’s history, The Stillness Syndrome summons memory to go back in time. 

Doc Alliance Selection Award 2021 – Nominated feature films
 

• A Black Jesus by Luca Lucchesi - Nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity 
   
• The Blunder of Love by Rocco Di Mento - Nominated by DOK Leipzig
   
• Gabi, Between Ages 8-13 by Engeli Broberg - Nominated by CPH:DOX
   
• Looking for Horses by Stefan Pavlović - Nominated by Visions du Réel 
   
• Native Rock by Macià Florit Campins - Nominated by Doclisboa
   
• Traces of a Landscape by Petr Záruba - Nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
   
• Zaho Zay by Maéva Ranaïvojaona, Georg Tiller - Nominated by FID Marseille
   

Nominated short films

• Baroque Femina (Nr.7-11) by Péter Lichter - Nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
   
• Bless you! by Tatiana Chistova, Maciej Hamela - Nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity
   
• Elefantin by Marie Zrenner, Johanna Seggelke - Nominated by DOK Leipzig
   
• Summer Night by the Beach by Kirsten Astrup, Maria Bordorff - Nominated by CPH:DOX
   
• The Sun and the Looking Glass - for one easily forgets but the tree remembers by Milena Desse - Nominated by FID Marseille
   
• The Stillness Syndrome by León Siminiani - Nominated by Visions du Réel
   
• Terraforming by Ricardo Moreira - Nominated by Doclisboa

Thanks again to the filmmakers, the producers and to all the professionals who took part in this edition of the Festival. A big thanks to the incredible team of Visions du Réel!

A few weeks have passed since the 52nd edition of the Festival ended. We look forward to seeing you next year! Save the date for the 53rd edition of Visions du Réel, which will take place from the 7th to the 17th April 2022.