Created in 1998 under the name "Cinéfondation", this section of the Festival became "La Cinef" in 2022. It seeks out filmmakers in film schools from around the world and has them enter the Official Selection to give them the best chance to launch their careers.
Photocall La Cinef 2023 © M. Petit / FDC
Each year for the past 25 years, more than 2,000 films from film schools all over the world apply for this branch of the Official Selection that seeks out up-and-coming filmmakers. Fifteen to twenty short or mid-length films per edition are chosen and submitted to the approval of the Jury of La Cinef, the same as that for the short films in Competition, which awards a prize to the three best of them during a special ceremony in Cannes. The first prize of La Cinef is €15,000, the second €11,250 and the third €7,500.
Created by Gilles Jacob in 1998, la Cinéfondation laid the groundwork for the Festival in terms of supporting young creation. It was supplemented in 2000 with the opening of The Résidence, which welcomes 12 filmmakers to Paris each year who are working on writing their first or second feature film. Then came The Atelier, which, from 2005 to 2022, invited around fifteen directors and their producers to Cannes to help them with the financing of their film project. Today, all of the initiatives of the Festival de Cannes in support of the emergence and renewal of cinematic creation around the world are brought together under the Cinéma de Demainbanner.
Among the most well-known filmmakers revealed by La Cinef, we can mention notably Jessica Hausner (Lourdes, Amour fou, Little Joe), Asif Kapadia(Senna, Amy, Diego Maradona), Emmanuelle Bercot (Elle s'en va (On My Way), La Tête Haute (Standing Tall), De son vivant (Peaceful)), Deniz Gamze Ergüven(Mustang, Kings) and Nadav Lapid (Ahed’s Knee), whose works have been selected for and received awards from the biggest international festivals.
La Cinef is today directed by Dimitra Karya. In 2023, its jury, presided over by Ildikó Enyedi, shone a light on three young filmmakers to keep an eye on in the coming years: Marlene Emilie Lyngstad (Denmark), Hwang Hyein (South Korea) and Zineb Wakrim (Morocco).
La Cinef is supported by the Amis du Festival Foundation.
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