{"id":14742,"date":"2024-11-17T18:19:41","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T17:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lecourt.cloud-sak.com\/?page_id=14742"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:53:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:53:54","slug":"national-competition","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lecourt-clermont.org\/en\/programs\/official-selection\/national-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"National Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row disable_element=”yes”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1758011129026{margin-bottom: 30px !important;}” el_class=”intro”]The National Competition showcases the best of French production over the past year, with 11 programmes of short films from all genres and backgrounds. Two French films are also part of the international competition.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1758011182786{margin-bottom: 30px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

French films in official competition<\/h4>\n

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48th edition<\/h4>\n

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Editorial<\/h4>\n

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Life is made up of pieces that don’t fit together<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In this National Competition, there is something of a grand choral narrative in which masked, vulnerable, and paradoxical beings march forward, and where cinema, like a heartbeat heard below the surface, slowly uncovers the major issues of its time.<\/p>\n

Men, at first, proceed tentatively all while giving the illusion of control. The most vulnerable among them take refuge in the extremes, succumbing to the siren call of masculinism in\u00a0Gueule cass\u00e9e (Looksmaxxing),<\/em> while others, full of wavering certainties, give free reign to their secret desires (for a childhood friend in Je veux danser (I Want to Dance) <\/em>or a much more mystical and testosterone-driven entity in BOA),<\/em> or to their shortcomings (modesty laid bare in\u00a0Biche<\/em>). Through their vulnerability, something surprisingly human comes to the surface, a light that makes its way through the crack, allowing us to better understand them and at times, even to love them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, across the aisle, women reclaim their power. Sometimes, with the gentleness often attributed to them \u2013 the expression \u201can iron fist in a velvet glove\u201d might define the character played by Coralie Russier in Derni\u00e8res nuits, premiers jours (Last Nights, First Days) <\/em>\u2014<\/em> and sometimes with a muted violence when they turn the tables by upsetting an unbearable power dynamic, whether they are pushed to the limit by a cruel boss like in Les Forcen\u00e9s (Frenzied)<\/em> or through blackmail as is the case in Coyotes<\/em>. Seduction is the hot date of this year\u2019s National Competition, as foretold by the song interpreted by La Lupe in the beginning of Fanny \u00e0 la plage (Fanny at the Beach)<\/em>: \u201cCrazy love, this obsession, I don’t know what to do since I’ve felt this temptation.\u201d Whether alone or in teams, at the beach with pizzas as in Au Bain des Dames (If You Don’t Like It, Look Away)<\/em> or at a restaurant with a biriyani in Sulaimani<\/em>, resilience will often be these women\u2019s best weapon, and they all seem to carry within them a quiet but decisive surge of solidarity, discreet but defining. A sisterhood that will allow those who were broken to find a new form, in the manner of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of restoring broken or damaged objects, not by concealing the cracks, but by sublimating them with gold.<\/p>\n

In the background, the world hums with biting irony: capitalism stretched to the point of absurdity,\u00a0as we see in\u00a0Veuillez patienter (Please Hold)<\/em>,\u00a0which offers a reality that slips into excess so as to better reveal its underlying logic. The films play on these excesses, reframing them just enough to allow the social truth hidden in the tragic to emerge, like the one that pierces every protagonist of Faux bijoux <\/em>in their search for a better life, or the mystery surrounding a sudden disappearance that puzzles an embedded journalist in Peau d\u2019argent<\/em>. It goes without saying that this year\u2019s National competition will have its share of unexpected encounters and family portraits. We shall witness the birth of unlikely duos, decisive\u2013sometimes romantic\u2014friendships, and families that fall apart just to find a way to rebuild themselves.<\/p>\n

As time passes, tired bodies appear, slowly giving way to illness or aging. We do not turn away from them. Our gaze falls upon those who care for, who watch over, who support, and who are not always able bear the weight of this responsibility, as is the case with Ga\u00eblle in Seule la tendresse (Only Tendreness)<\/em>, cruelly searching for love in the midst of a winter as biting as death, or the young Abel who turns away from the emaciated body of his father offered up to a scorching summer in Soleil p\u00e2le (Pale Sun)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is how the two films chosen to represent France in the International Competition synthesise these issues and necessities. Lucas Gloppe\u2019s Mardochi<\/em> evokes failure in the quest for a memory: upon returning from Rabat, Vincent was unable to find his father’s childhood home, his now-dying father having left Morocco after its independence. It is the unexpected encounter with Ahmed that will allow him to reconcile with this father he had feared for so long.\u00a0The animated fiction Une fugue (To the Woods)<\/em>\u00a0by Agn\u00e8s Patron, for its part, resurrects the memory of a long-gone brother in the mind of a sister struggling to grieve for one night. Here, ghosts do not linger in order to frighten, but rather to instill in the living the strength to carry on.<\/p>\n

Through the variety of its narratives and the subtlety of its perspectives, this selection sheds light on the driving forces and anxieties that permeate our era. It confirms cinema’s ability to offer a space in which our experiences, both individual and collective, may be seen from a different point of view.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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French films in official competition<\/h4>\n

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8 LITRES ET DEMI JUSQU’\u00c0 L’AUBE (HALF TANK ‘TILL DAWN)<\/strong><\/td>\nBruno Pieretti \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Documentary \/ 28′<\/td>\nDobro Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
AU BAIN DES DAMES (IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, LOOK AWAY)<\/strong><\/td>\nMargaux Fournier \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Docudrama \/ 30′<\/td>\nCaviar Paris, Les Films de Nout<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LE BATELEUR (THE JUGGLER)<\/strong><\/td>\nJennifer Fanjeaux \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 18′<\/td>\n\u00c9t\u00e9 Caniculaire, 2.4.7. Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BICHE<\/strong><\/td>\nYoann Hebert \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 12′<\/td>\nDeuxpourcent Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BOA<\/strong><\/td>\nAlexandre Dostie \/ Canada, France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 25′<\/td>\nCoop Vid\u00e9o de Montr\u00e9al, Punchline Cin\u00e9ma<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LES BOTTES DE LA NUIT (THE NIGHT BOOTS)<\/strong><\/td>\nPierre-Luc Granjon \/ France \/ 2024 \/ Animated Fiction \/ 12′<\/td>\nAm Stram Gram<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CARCASSONNE-ACAPULCO<\/strong><\/td>\nMarjorie Caup, Olivier H\u00e9raud \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Animated Fiction \/14′<\/td>\n12 \/\/ 24 Films, Association 1071<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CE QUI N’EXISTE PAS N’EXISTE PAS (THAT WHICH DOES NOT EXIST DOES NOT EXIST)<\/strong><\/td>\nLazare Gousseau, Franck Morand, Guillaume Senez \/ France, Belgium \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 35′<\/td>\nLes Films Pell\u00e9as, Versus production<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LE COUTEAU ET LA PLAIE (THE BLADE, THE WOUND)<\/strong><\/td>\nLucas Minier \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 22′<\/td>\nLa F\u00e9mis<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
COYOTES<\/strong><\/td>\nSaid Zagha \/ France, Jordan, Palestine, United Kingdom \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 20′<\/td>\nSalaud Morisset, Night Owls<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LA CURE THERMALE (SPA TREATMENT)<\/strong><\/td>\nJos\u00e9phine Ha \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 25′<\/td>\nDimanche Soir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CURIOSITY ON PLANET MARS<\/strong><\/td>\nTommy Baron \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 22′<\/td>\nSupernova Films, Blast Film<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DE CAILLOU \u00c0 CAILLOU (PEBBLE TO PEBBLE)<\/strong><\/td>\nCharlotte Annereau \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Animated Fiction \/ 10′<\/td>\n\u00c9cole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure des Arts D\u00e9coratifs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LA DERNI\u00c8RE NEIGE (THE LAST SNOW)<\/strong><\/td>\nRodolphe Bouquet-Populus \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 20′<\/td>\nFulguerrant Films, Rezo Productions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DERNI\u00c8RES NUITS, PREMIERS JOURS (LAST NIGHTS, FIRST DAYS)<\/strong><\/td>\nJulien Darras, Maxime Lindon \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 28′<\/td>\nLes Films du Cygne<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
D\u00c9TACH\u00c9<\/strong><\/td>\nJulien Lilti, Olivier Poisson \/ France \/ 2024 \/ Fiction \/ 23′<\/td>\nLes Films d’Avalon, Voir le Jour<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DU PAIN ET DES JEUX (BREAD AND GAMES)<\/strong><\/td>\nJudith Longuet-Marx, L\u00e9a Tarral \/ France, Belgium \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 28′<\/td>\nKidam, Les Films du Chou, D\u00e9rives<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
L’\u00c9TERNIT\u00c9 (ETERNITY)<\/strong><\/td>\nS\u00e9bastien Betbeder \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Docudrama \/ 29′<\/td>\nEnvie de Temp\u00eate, Festival La Rochelle Cin\u00e9ma<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
L’\u00c9TRANGE HUMEUR ADOLESCENTE (STRANGE TEEN SPIRIT)<\/strong><\/td>\nFrank Ternier \/ France \/ 2024 \/ Fiction anim\u00e9e \/ 16′<\/td>\nIkki Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FANNY \u00c0 LA PLAGE (FANNY AT THE BEACH)<\/strong><\/td>\nRapha\u00eblle Petit-Gille \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 34′<\/td>\nSMAC Productions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FAUX BIJOUX<\/strong><\/td>\nJessy Moussallem \/ France, Germany, Italy \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 21′<\/td>\nVixens<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FILLE DE L\u2019EAU (WATER GIRL)<\/strong><\/td>\nSandra Desmazi\u00e8res \/ France, Netherlands, Portugal \/ 2025 \/ Animated Fiction \/ 15′<\/td>\nCa\u00efmans Productions, Valk Productions, Animais AVPL<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LES FORCEN\u00c9S (FRENZIED)<\/strong><\/td>\nGuillaume Chevalier \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 23′<\/td>\nLes Films Norfolk<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LA GRANDE ENVIE<\/strong><\/td>\nJulien Aveque \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 23′<\/td>\nSourire Productions, Will Production<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
GUEULE CASS\u00c9E (LOOKSMAXXING)<\/strong><\/td>\nJoyce Kuoh Moukouri \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 12′<\/td>\nGREC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
HABIBI<\/strong><\/td>\nAlexey Evstigneev \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 16′<\/td>\nModerato<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
INTERSECTING MEMORY<\/strong><\/td>\nShayma’ Awawdeh \/ France, Palestine \/ 2025 \/ Documentary \/ 21′<\/td>\nGREC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
JE VEUX DANSER (I WANT TO DANCE)<\/strong><\/td>\nLomane de Dietrich\u00a0 \/ France \/ 2024 \/ Fiction \/ 18′<\/td>\nGREC<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
JOLIE PETITE HISTOIRE<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00c9lodie Beaumont Tarillon \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Documentary \/ 27′<\/td>\nParaiso Production<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MARDOCHI*<\/strong><\/td>\nLucas Gloppe \/ France, Tunisia \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 27′<\/td>\nPunchline Cin\u00e9ma, Godolphin Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
M\u00c9M\u00c9 (GRANDMA)<\/strong><\/td>\nAnne-Sophie Di\u00e9go \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 17′<\/td>\nSPADE<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MIRA<\/strong><\/td>\nDaniella Saba \/ France, Brazil \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 17′<\/td>\nRikiki, Elz\u00e9vir Films, Horizonte Filmes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MURS<\/strong><\/td>\nBasile Charpentier \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 23′<\/td>\nO+ Productions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ODONATA<\/strong><\/td>\nAdrien Fonda \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 30′<\/td>\nIn The Cut<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ON BR\u00dbLERA (BURN AND FADE)<\/strong><\/td>\nDavid Arslanian \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 16′<\/td>\nWrong Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PEAU D’ARGENT<\/strong><\/td>\nMatias Carlier \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 18′<\/td>\nOpening Nights, Picseyes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
PETIT PONT (LEG UP)<\/strong><\/td>\nJulie Lerat-Gersant \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 17′<\/td>\nEscazal Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
QUAND TU JOUES (WHEN YOU PLAY)<\/strong><\/td>\nEmma S\u00e9m\u00e9ria \/ France \/ 2024 \/ Fiction \/ 9′<\/td>\n\u00c9cole Travelling, Too Many Cowboys<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
RIVES (RIVERBANKS)<\/strong><\/td>\nArthur Cahn \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 24′<\/td>\n5 \u00e0 7 Films, Films Grand Huit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LA ROBE PEAU (THE FLESH DRESS)<\/strong><\/td>\nJoachim H\u00e9riss\u00e9 \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Animated Fiction \/15′<\/td>\nKomaw\u00e9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SAILLIE<\/strong><\/td>\nAude Thuries \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 10′<\/td>\nTopshot Films, Les Films du Crabe<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SAMBA INFINITO<\/strong><\/td>\nLeonardo Martinelli \/ France, Brazil \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 15′<\/td>\nLes Valseurs, Pseudo Filmes, Bara\u00f9na Filmes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SEULE LA TENDRESSE (ONLY TENDERNESS)<\/strong><\/td>\nNicolas Giuliani \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 50′<\/td>\nLes Films Hatari<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SOLEIL P\u00c2LE (PALE SUN)<\/strong><\/td>\nAdrian Moyse Dullin, Jawahine Zentar \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 16′<\/td>\nPunchline Cin\u00e9ma, After Hours Production<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SOUS LES RUINES (BENEATH THE RUINS)<\/strong><\/td>\nNadhir Bouslama \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 27′<\/td>\nLa F\u00e9mis<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SULAIMANI<\/strong><\/td>\nVinnie Ann Bose \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Animated Fiction \/20′<\/td>\nGirelle Production, Les Astronautes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TONDEUZ<\/strong><\/td>\nSimon Bonanni \/ France \/ 2024 \/ Fiction \/ 19′<\/td>\nPh\u00e9nom\u00e8nes FIlms<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LES TREMBLEMENTS<\/strong><\/td>\nLouise Chauvet \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 21′<\/td>\nGanache Studio<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UNE FUGUE (TO THE WOODS)*<\/strong><\/td>\nAgn\u00e8s Patron \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Animated Fiction \/ 15′<\/td>\nSacrebleu Productions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VEUILLEZ PATIENTER (PLEASE HOLD)<\/strong><\/td>\nSolal Bouloudnine \/ France \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 20′<\/td>\nYukunkun Productions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VULTURES\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nDian Weys \/ France, South Africa \/ 2025 \/ Fiction \/ 15′<\/td>\nInsolence Productions, Electronic Roof Films<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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French films
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The National Competition showcases the best of French production over the past year, with 11 programmes of short films from all genres and backgrounds. Two French films are also part of the international competition.<\/p>\n

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Life is made up of pieces that don’t fit together<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In this National Competition, there is something of a grand choral narrative in which masked, vulnerable, and paradoxical beings march forward, and where cinema, like a heartbeat heard below the surface, slowly uncovers the major issues of its time.<\/p>\n

Men, at first, proceed tentatively all while giving the illusion of control. The most vulnerable among them take refuge in the extremes, succumbing to the siren call of masculinism in\u00a0Gueule cass\u00e9e (Looksmaxxing),<\/em> while others, full of wavering certainties, give free reign to their secret desires (for a childhood friend in Je veux danser (I Want to Dance) <\/em>or a much more mystical and testosterone-driven entity in BOA),<\/em> or to their shortcomings (modesty laid bare in\u00a0Biche<\/em>). Through their vulnerability, something surprisingly human comes to the surface, a light that makes its way through the crack, allowing us to better understand them and at times, even to love them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, across the aisle, women reclaim their power. Sometimes, with the gentleness often attributed to them \u2013 the expression \u201can iron fist in a velvet glove\u201d might define the character played by Coralie Russier in Derni\u00e8res nuits, premiers jours (Last Nights, First Days) <\/em>\u2014<\/em> and sometimes with a muted violence when they turn the tables by upsetting an unbearable power dynamic, whether they are pushed to the limit by a cruel boss like in Les Forcen\u00e9s (Frenzied)<\/em> or through blackmail as is the case in Coyotes<\/em>. Seduction is the hot date of this year\u2019s National Competition, as foretold by the song interpreted by La Lupe in the beginning of Fanny \u00e0 la plage (Fanny at the Beach)<\/em>: \u201cCrazy love, this obsession, I don’t know what to do since I’ve felt this temptation.\u201d Whether alone or in teams, at the beach with pizzas as in Au Bain des Dames (If You Don’t Like It, Look Away)<\/em> or at a restaurant with a biriyani in Sulaimani<\/em>, resilience will often be these women\u2019s best weapon, and they all seem to carry within them a quiet but decisive surge of solidarity, discreet but defining. A sisterhood that will allow those who were broken to find a new form, in the manner of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of restoring broken or damaged objects, not by concealing the cracks, but by sublimating them with gold.<\/p>\n

In the background, the world hums with biting irony: capitalism stretched to the point of absurdity,\u00a0as we see in\u00a0Veuillez patienter (Please Hold)<\/em>,\u00a0which offers a reality that slips into excess so as to better reveal its underlying logic. The films play on these excesses, reframing them just enough to allow the social truth hidden in the tragic to emerge, like the one that pierces every protagonist of Faux bijoux <\/em>in their search for a better life, or the mystery surrounding a sudden disappearance that puzzles an embedded journalist in Peau d\u2019argent<\/em>. It goes without saying that this year\u2019s National competition will have its share of unexpected encounters and family portraits. We shall witness the birth of unlikely duos, decisive\u2013sometimes romantic\u2014friendships, and families that fall apart just to find a way to rebuild themselves.<\/p>\n

As time passes, tired bodies appear, slowly giving way to illness or aging. We do not turn away from them. Our gaze falls upon those who care for, who watch over, who support, and who are not always able bear the weight of this responsibility, as is the case with Ga\u00eblle in Seule la tendresse (Only Tendreness)<\/em>, cruelly searching for love in the midst of a winter as biting as death, or the young Abel who turns away from the emaciated body of his father offered up to a scorching summer in Soleil p\u00e2le (Pale Sun)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is how the two films chosen to represent France in the International Competition synthesise these issues and necessities. Lucas Gloppe\u2019s Mardochi<\/em> evokes failure in the quest for a memory: upon returning from Rabat, Vincent was unable to find his father’s childhood home, his now-dying father having left Morocco after its independence. It is the unexpected encounter with Ahmed that will allow him to reconcile with this father he had feared for so long.\u00a0The animated fiction Une fugue (To the Woods)<\/em>\u00a0by Agn\u00e8s Patron, for its part, resurrects the memory of a long-gone brother in the mind of a sister struggling to grieve for one night. Here, ghosts do not linger in order to frighten, but rather to instill in the living the strength to carry on.<\/p>\n

Through the variety of its narratives and the subtlety of its perspectives, this selection sheds light on the driving forces and anxieties that permeate our era. It confirms cinema’s ability to offer a space in which our experiences, both individual and collective, may be seen from a different point of view.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Competition coordination<\/h4>\n

St\u00e9phane Souillat
\ns.souillat@lecourt-clermont.org<\/a><\/p>\n

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National Competition selection committee<\/h4>\n

Fanny Barrot, Marie-Laure Boukredine, Marie Cordier, S\u00e9bastien Duclocher, J\u00e9r\u00e9my Laurichesse, Sarah Momesso, Bertrand Rouchit, St\u00e9phane Souillat, J\u00e9r\u00f4me Ters, Laura Thomasset.<\/p>\n

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