NEW FRENCH SHORTS 2020 (Kino Marquee)

[Chris Knipp]

New French Shorts
FESTIVAL COVERAGE SECTION



From Kino Lorber, a major importer of foreign films to the US, comes a pocket showcase of selected short films new from France. It reportedly "some of the most exciting new cinematic voices from France runs the gamut from animation to queer romance to absurdist comedy," and includes award-winning films from Cannes, Locarno and Palm Springs ShortFest. It's available through Young French Cinema, a program of UniFrance and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. In theatrical and booking stage now, it will be up on the Kino Lorber Marquee virtual theater May 15, 2020. Online fees to watch will benefit the theater of your choice. For the Kino Marquee page go HERE.

AHMED'S SONG (Le chant d'Ahmed)
Director: Foued Mansour
Winner of Bridging the Borders Award at the Palm Springs International ShortFest 2019
Ahmed, employed at the public baths and nearing retirement, encounters Mike, a teenager adrift. Between the bath house walls, a friendship will develop between these two fractured souls. (30m)

SHEEP, WOLF, AND A CUP OF TEA (Moutons, loup et tasse de thé)
Director: Marion Lacourt
Official selection: 2019 Locarno Film Festival
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…(12m)

TUESDAY FROM 8 TO 6,(Mardi de 8 à 18)
Director: Cecilia de Arce
Official selection: 2019 Cannes Critics Week
Névine, a secondary school monitor, is committed to her thankless day job, dealing with teachers, administration & 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. (26m)

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US AND THE SKY (La distance entre nous et le ciel)
Director: Vasilis Kekatos
Winner of Short Film Palme d'Or and Queer Palme at Cannes 2019
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. They haggle & sparks fly. (9m)

THE TEARS THING,
(Le coup des larmes)
Director: Clémence Poésy
Official selection: 2019 Venice Film Festival
Florence is an actress & preparations for a new role will challenge her in a way she could never have seen coming...by way of an ex-girlfriend. (25m)

MAGNETIC HARVEST, (La traction de pôles)
Director: Marine Levéel
Mickaël seems to move in a nebula of desires: find his lost pig, get his organic farming certification, stop being lonely. But from afar, Mickaël looks more like a magnet attracted to Paul. (24m)

Special bonus short!
THE GLORIOUS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH OF NICOLAS CHAUVIN (Le discours d'acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin)
Director: Benjamin Crotty
Official selection: 2018 New York Film Festival | Winner of Mantarraya Award
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. (26m)