Italian film bags top honours at Cinef Prizes of Cannes Film Festival
La Cinef Selection included 16 student films, chosen out of 1528 entries coming from 378 film schools around world (Photo: Cannes)
After almost 10 days of glamour and screenings of hundreds of films, the first awards at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival have been announced. And the first top award goes to a film produced by an Italian film student.
The Short Films and La Cinef Jury, presided by Yousry Nasrallah and comprised of Monia Chokri, Félix Moati, Jean-Claude Raspiengeas et Laura Wandel, named the winners of the 2022 La Cinef Prizes during a ceremony held in the Buñuel Theater, followed by the screening of the winning films.
(Photo: Imdb)
La Cinef Selection included 16 student films, chosen out of 1528 entries coming from 378 film schools around the world. Of these, Il Barbiere Complottista (The Conspiracy Man) made by Valerio Ferrara of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome, the oldest film school in Western Europe that was set up in 1935.
The 19-minute film set in a lower-class neighborhood in Rome recounts the story of a barber who believes in conspiracy theories. He is the laughing stock not only of his family, but also at work. Nobody takes him seriously until he gets arrested by the police.
The second prize was bagged by a Chinese film, Di Er (Somewhere) made by Li Jiahe, a student of the Hebei University of Science and Technology School of Film and Television, in Shijiazhuang city of Heibei province in China.
The film, 23-minute-long, describes a beer drinking party organised by the owner of a paper mill “Fat man” and his employee “Blurred”, in order to celebrate the release of “Bald head” from prison. An unexpected event forces “Fat man” and “Bald head” to start a search for “a blurred good place”, with a river and trees.
The third prize was shared by two films, Glorious Revolution, and Les Humains Sont Cons Quand Ils S’empilent. Made by Masha Novikova, a student of the London Film School, Glorious Revolution, a 20-minute film, is set in 2014 at the height of the Ukrainian revolution. The film depicts a mother’s loss, as her son is killed while protesting in Independence Square. Her attempt to bury him as a hero clashes with the corruption in the bureaucratic system, testing her view of Ukraine.
Les Humains Sont Cons Quand Ils S’empilent (Humans Are Dumber When Crammed Up Together) is a 4-minute film made by Laurène Fernandez of La CinéFabrique, in Lyon, France. It depicts some neighbours, locked up in their own apartments, who tell the camera about the little troubles of life in community. Little by little, when everything piles up, it is enough to drive one mad.
(Photo: Imdb)
The lone Indian student film to have made the cut and be selected for screening at the Cannes Film Festival, Nauha by Pratham Khurana, a student of the Whistling Woods International in Mumbai failed to bag any prizes.
The film focuses on 22-year-old Kishan’s role as a caretaker for an ailing older man. Although their relationship is not merely transactional, the film does not shy away from exploring the financial and social disparity between the two. Kishan’s story resonates with many people feeling stuck in their current position and reflects a wider outlook.
