35 years after Ridley Scott’s movie premiered in Cannes in 1991, Thelma & Louise are back as heroines on the official poster
The organisers of Cannes Film Festival, the world’s largest film festival organised in the city in southern France every May, have announced that for the 79th Festival de Cannes, 10 short films have been selected for the competition from a pool of 3,184 submissions representing 136 countries and India’s ‘Shadows of the Moonless Nights’, Directed by Mehar Malhotra finds an early foothold in Cinef Foundation competition.
These finalists will compete for the Short Film Palme d’or, with the selections highlighting diverse, international cinematic talent and will be awarded on May 23, during the closing awards ceremony.
In a press statement, Cannes Film Festival organisers say that among the selected titles are Fresh Cut by Hadrien Bels, The Last Spring by Mathilde Bedouet, and Sisters’ Swim by Lola Degove, alongside internationally entries like Para los Contrincantes by Federico Luis and Peloton Trueno by Theo Montoya.
Filmmakers from Europe, Latin America, and Asia are well represented, with Vietnam’s The Dream is a Snail by Thien An Nguyen and Portugal’s A Few Things Happening by a River by Daniel Soares adding to the global palette.
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According to the statement, running parallel is La Cinef, Cannes’ section dedicated to film school productions, now in its 29th edition. From 2,750 entries from film schools all over the world only 14 live-action and 5 animated shorts have been selected, which are directed by 12 women and nine men directors representing 15 countries across four continents.
The statement adds that the La Cinef lineup is equally good. Films such as Laser-Gato from New York University, by Lucas Acher, Pickled from the United Kingdom’s National Film and Television School, by Fanny Capu, Photograph Of An Insane Woman To Show The Condition Of Her Hair by Arwen Aznag from Luca School of Arts Brussels and Somewhere I Belong by Youssef Handouse from Tunisia’s ISAMM highlight the institutional diversity shaping new cinema. Awards in this section will be announced ahead of the main closing ceremony.
According to the statement at the same time, the festival’s official poster draws a deliberate line between past and present, 35 years after Ridley Scott’s movie premiered in Cannes in 1991, Thelma & Louise are back as heroines on the official poster. Featuring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon in a still from Thelma & Louise, directed by Ridley Scott.