A friend and a sovereign reign over Clermont-Ferrand.
French film
Le Roi David
by director Lila Pinell and Australian film
Mate
by George-Alex Nagle won the grand jury prizes at the 44th edition of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival on Saturday.
Composed in particular of the Spanish director Borja Cobeaga and the British filmmaker Joanna Quinn, the jury distinguished these two works among 50 films for the national selection - including 30 directed or co-directed by women - and 77 international short films from 55 countries.
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Seventh film by Lila Pinell,
Le Roi David
tells the story of Shana who is looking for work because she needs money and to leave France and her bad associations.
But the past she seeks to forget is never far away.
Mate
(
Mon pote,
in French) presents the story of John, an idle man, who has to take care of shy high school student Jack for a weekend, in a cramped working-class community on the outskirts of Sydney.
Jack's efforts to reestablish contact are jeopardized by Jack's self-destructive nature that comes to light.
Leaving after a virtual edition
The competition began on January 28 this year, in the context of the return to theaters of spectators.
The Special Jury Prizes were awarded to the Franco-Senegalese film
Astel
by Ramata-Toulaye Sy, also awarded for the best first work of fiction, and to the Chinese film
Sarira
by Mingyang Li. Inspired by real events,
Bestia
by Chilean Hugo Covarrubias, which explores the life of a secret police agent during the Chilean dictatorship, received the award for best animated film in the international charts.
Scottish film
The Bayview
(
Hotel Bayview
), Best European Film.
A newcomer this year, the Queer Film Prize was awarded to
A Burning Body
by Lauriane Lagarde.
More than 8,100 films were presented this year to the selection committees, a figure slightly down on previous editions.
Before an edition relocated online in 2021, due to the health crisis, the festival had recorded some 170,000 admissions in 2020. This 44th edition of the festival also organized a retrospective devoted to Spanish cinema from the past twenty years.
A production which displays “
an almost continuous presence in the main world festivals, with the obtaining of numerous prizes
”, underlined the organizers at the opening of the festival.
