SESSION 1 > 10H-12H - SALA 3
INTERNATIONAL FICTION
MAITIGHAR
Nepal - 15’
SYNOPSIS
After a festive evening with her friends in Pokhara, Asha, a young high-school student, discreetly returns to her village. Arriving at her mother's house, she is unaware that she is about to enter the adult world.
INFORMATIONS
Director: Marc Gurung
Writer: Marc Gurung
Producer: Lucas Tothe
Key Cast: Rakshya Thapa, Karma Shakya, Kabita Ale, Pashupati Rai
ABOUT
Born in Gouvieux, France, Marc Gurung trained and worked as an editor before turning to writing his own films.
TIN CAN
Nepal - 15’
SYNOPSIS
J.C. came to America as an illegal immigrant when he was just a child. Now, as an adult, he's still an illegal alien but has managed to persevere and prosper working as a rodeo clown. However, after a series of unfortunate events, J.C. finds himself down on his luck and in search for a new happiness. He eventually finds it near the Mexican border but the price he pays could get him kicked out of the only country he knows.
SPECIFICATIONS
Director, Writer and Producer: Pat Battistini
Producers: Pat Battistini, Robert Francke, Carlos Ragas
Key Cast: Carlos Ragas, Kevin. E. West, Lisa Cole,Tom Katsis, Jef McClure, Darryl Sims, Christopher Lee Scoles, Sherry Mattson, Viviana Saarvedra, Carlos Medecigo
ABOUT
Pat Battistini
An award winning writer, director, and producer who brings over thirty years of experience to the set, Pat started his career in Chicago working in front of the camera.
Since taking over behind the camera duties, he takes pride in his on-set relationships and communication with actors. His actors have received stage and screen nominations and awards.
With his writing, directing, and producing, Pat has earned a reputation for developing and creating unique and wonderful stories. His fourteen short films have garnered him awards across the board.
Known as a team player, no job is too small for Pat to see through from start to finish. His creative eye for detail and positive, jovial personality has earned the trust of many producers, cast, and crew who continue to want to work with him.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Our film may be long by some festival standards but in the festivals that we have screened, it really resonates with the audiences. Not only because the film tells a wonderful story but it also deals with a very timely subject matter.
I made this film because of the temperament and feelings toward immigration that have been fermenting in the country these past few years. Though the tale is fictitious, I hope to give the audience more to think about in regards to DACA and the people affected by it.
To date, we have won twenty-seven awards for the film.
VAGABOND
France - 12’
SYNOPSIS
In a near-future world where borders are no longer just physical but encoded into our very identities, Vincent, a French international student, arrives in the U.S. for his studies. As his plane lands, a wave of panic washes over him—his passport feels like a fragile tether to who he is. His fears escalate at border control when the officer scanning his documents can’t match his passport to any existing country. Vincent’s very existence seems to glitch in a system built to map every person to a place.
Detained and interrogated, Vincent finds himself grappling with questions of belonging, identity, and reality itself. In a world obsessed with categorization, he begins to uncover cracks in the systems that define nations and people. What he discovers will change the way he sees himself, and his place in the world, forever.
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Jean-Charles Andreu
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project: SCAD
Producer: Julia Moran
Key Cast: Isaac Liu, Alexandra Miles
ABOUT
JC Andreu is a French filmmaker with a passion for storytelling that bridges the mythical and the modern. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), JC has honed a distinctive voice that employs magical realism to unearth social truths. Now based in Los Angeles, he crafts narratives that illuminate the human experience, using the extraordinary and the absurd as a lens to reveal the complexities of contemporary life.
ANTIGONE
Iran - 19’33
SYNOPSIS
A group of young actors face problems when they are about to perform their play on stage
CREDITS
Director, Writer and Producer: Peyman Rajabi
Key Cast: Shadi Ziaei, Vahid Meshkat, Shide Ghafarian, Masoud Ghorbani, Zahra Amirifard, Kiarash Kamro, Shaban Hatami
ABOUT
Peyman Rajabi is a director and writer for theater and short films.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This film is inspired by the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement, a movement that originated in Iran and resonated across the globe. The story reflects my personal experiences in theater, where I have repeatedly witnessed the ruthless censorship of scenes, especially those related to women. These experiences compelled me to create a narrative where the silenced voices of women can be heard through art.
Despite relentless censorship and countless limitations, the fight must continue, and we must stand against oppressive systems. This film symbolizes that resistance. With a theatrical approach, I aimed to merge theater and cinema. The story unfolds in the style of two-act plays: in the scenes where the theater performance is shown, the camera remains static, while in the backstage moments, the handheld camera conveys the group's vibrant and tense atmosphere. The mise-en-scène of the performance and the backstage scenes are designed to complement each other, with Antigone’s death dance on stage serving as a symbol of "Woman, Life, Freedom", Antigone representing women, the dance symbolizing freedom, and the stage embodying life.
This film provides an opportunity for audiences to witness, through the story of a theater troupe, the challenges and struggles faced by women in Iran. My hope is that this work can amplify a portion of the silenced voices that long for freedom and justice.
Russia - 19’15
SYNOPSIS
Kolya wakes up in the clinic, he doesn’t remember anything. Meeting Katya gives him hope for salvation. But will Katya be able to find a place for him in her life?
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Светлана Ахмадишина
First-time Filmmaker | Student Project - Московская киношкола
Producer: Мария Самушева
ABOUT
Светлана was born in the small Ural town of Sredneuralsk, not far from Yekaterinburg. Lives in Moscow. He is passionate about helping homeless animals at the shelter. Loves hockey and cinema.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Hello! Our film is a metaphor, it is a social drama.
In the film "Mongrel" the theme of awareness of bad deeds is important to me. In my opinion, it is easy to sympathize with the victim, but how difficult it is to join the antagonist! After all, in each of us there is a mixture of both good and bad, each of us has something to say in justification. Katya’s tragedy in the film is important to me. I don’t feel sorry for her, but I’m scared for her.
COMEDY FICTION
59 DEGREES
France 9’52
SYNOPSIS
A couple and a real estate agent visit a parking space.
In 2050, parking lots are now rented out as apartments, because the temperature is much lower than outside, where it's constantly over 50 degrees.
But the man in the couple is thinking of buying for his mother, who is in a nursing home without air conditioning, and the woman is thinking of buying for herself.
The real estate agent, on the other hand, is thinking of just one thing: making money.
CREDITS
Directors: Matias de Sa Moreira, Cyril Pinero
Writer: Matias de Sa Moreira
Writer: Cyril Pinero
Key Cast: Hélène Morguen, Matias de Sa Moreira, Cyril Pinero, Jean-Michel Cortana, Domitille Branchu Barbier, Fanny Vambacas, Arlette Najsztat, Caroline Cristofoli, Sarah Labhar
Director of Photography: Romé Tillier
First assistant camera: Jacques Rosselli
Sound designer: Clément Cassan
Make-up artist: Michèle Gomis
Editor: Cyril Pinero
Sound Post Production: Quentin Merieux
ABOUT
Matias de Sa Moreira
Born in 1976, I grew up in a family of 10 children with very cinephile parents. Initially attracted by real-life cinema, I completed a Master's Degree in Creative Documentary Filmmaking (Creadoc) under the guidance of director Mariana Otero. After documentaries, I turned to fiction in order to master acting and write my own dialogues. I make several films for the Nikon Festival, the Mobile Film Festival, Paris Courts Devant and TF1's Imagine competition. These films allow me to develop my characterization, improve my direction and strengthen my attachment to comedy and drama.
In 2021, I created a collective of actors called "Demain on réplique" (Tomorrow we reply). We organize professional meetings with casting directors, directors and scriptwriters, a time for collective work and research.
Cyril Piñero
After many different lives and an unlikely encounter with a theater troupe in a bar in Bourges (France), Cyril left everything behind to train as an actor at the Cours Florent in Paris, where he never imagined for a second that he would meet passionate directors who would teach him the adventure of directing. After dabbling in commercials, music videos and demo tapes, he turned to fiction, bringing to life the many facets of his childhood.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT
What if one day we started living in parking lots, because it's now very hot outside and air conditioning is very expensive. Not everyone can afford to stay in their apartment.
Laws are gradually changing. Real estate agencies can now rent anything to anyone.
In 2021, in the middle of a heatwave, I imagined myself sitting in my parking lot to work, because the temperature was so pleasant. From there began my desire to tell a story about a near-future where people living in big cities would move into basements.
Then, together with Cyril Piñero, we imagined a fairly simple, classic situation involving a visit to an apartment, to create an everyday life in a futuristic situation.
Matias de Sa Moreira and Cyril Piñero
THE CONNOISSEUR
United States - 16’54
SYNOPSIS
A niche connoisseur of Chinese restaurants meets his match when a new restaurant opens in his neighborhood, and their way of doing things changes his perspective.
CREDITS
Director and Writer: Anne Marie Boidock
Producers: Josh Levine, Jay Johnson, Stephen Boidock
Key Cast: P.J. Sosko, Sarah Bock, Ali Alsaleh
ABOUT
Anne Marie Boidock - Originally from Texas and currently based in Los Angeles, Anne Marie is a writer-director who has produced six narrative films to date. Previously, Anne Marie worked as a creative producer in tandem with screenwriter Rob Edwards (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Princess & The Frog), handling his full development slate of studio projects for partners such as Nike’s Waffle Iron, Steph Curry’s Unanimous Media, Hudlin Entertainment, PatMa Productions, among many others. She also worked with Edwards during his time at Marvel from 2020-2021. Since 2022, Anne Marie has been a member of the emerging writer-director incubator “Craft Services” run by Executive Producer Nicholas Weinstock (Severance, Escape at Dannemora).
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This movie is about someone stuck in a nostalgic loop, using an unconventional coping method. As a writer-director, I’ve always been especially intrigued by coping mechanisms, and I feel that we only ever see a small portion of the coping spectrum on display in the media. I think people are delightful weirdos in real life, and I’ve always felt like there’s more out there to explore on screen.
I’m also curious about where the line is between little, occasional coping mechanisms and more all-encompassing things that we have faith in like God, church traditions, tarot cards, birth charts, horoscopes, tea leaves, cultural practices, and any constant that gives us hope and makes us feel safe or more in control of our lives. What are all of us looking for? I’d argue that, sometimes, it’s a longing to be jolted into something fantastic. A new relationship, a better job, a more interesting city, a state of mind. A reminder that what we already have is fantastic.
This is not a new concept, the dream of finding “greater meaning,” but the appetite for it has grown immensely with the internet and social media. We have become accustomed to convenience and with that has come impatience. We want great things to happen to us all the time now. We want them to seek us out. Lasso us and change us. The point I’m making is... The “jolt” is out there but we’ve forgotten that it is organic. It’s delightfully unorthodox and unpredictable. Slippery. You never know when it’s going to happen. No one is its master.
This movie is about that lightning bolt – in particular, one that happens when one person has a coping mechanism that is totally preposterous to another.
