2020 Festival du nouveau cinéma explained
The 2020 edition of the Festival du nouveau cinéma, the 49th edition in the event's history, took place from October 7 to 31, 2020 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[1] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, it was staged almost entirely online, with the exception of a few outdoor screenings at Ciné-parc FNC x YUL, a temporary drive-in theatre in the employee parking lot of Montréal–Trudeau International Airport.[2]
The festival had planned to include some in-person screenings, but was forced to cancel these when the government of Quebec imposed a 28-day lockdown on September 29, just days before the festival was set to begin.[3] As the drive-in and online components were already planned, the festival was able to quickly pivot its strategy,[2] although the online-only model forced them to pull some of the films that had been scheduled for in-person screenings.[1]
The festival opened with a free public screening of Underground (Souterrain) by Sophie Dupuis at FNC x YUL, and closed with the film My Salinger Year by Philippe Falardeau on October 16.[4] Some films were available on the online platform for only a limited time, while others remained available for viewing until October 31.[5]
Awards
Award winners were announced on October 17.[6]
The international competition jury comprised Pascale Bussières, Louise Lecavalier and Félix Dufour-Laperrière, while the national competition jury consisted of Evelyne de la Chenelière, Timothée Donay and Ewa Puszczynska.[7]
| Award | Film | Filmmaker |
|---|
| National Competition, Grand Prize | Judy Versus Capitalism | Mike Hoolboom |
| National Competition, Prix de la diffusion Québécor | Without Havana (Sin la Habana) | Kaveh Nabatian |
| International Competition, Grand Prize | Atlantis (Атлантида) | Valentyn Vasyanovych |
| International Competition, Prix de l’innovation Daniel Langlois | Ecstasy (Êxtase) | Moara Passoni |
| International Competition, Best Acting Performance | This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection | Mary Twala Mhlongo |
| FIPRESCI International Critics Prize | Last and First Men | Jóhann Jóhannsson |
| New Alchemists Prize | Khamsin | Grégoire Orio, Grégoire Couvert |
| P'tits Loups | À la mode | Jean Lecointre |
| FNC Explore Panorama Prize | O | Qiu Yang |
| FNC Explore Horizon Prize | The Book of Distance | Randall Okita |
| National Competition, Short Film | Foam (Écume) | Omar Elhamy |
| National Competition, Short Film Honorable Mention | Benjamin, Benny, Ben | Paul Shkordoff |
| National Competition, Short Film Public Prize | Shooting Star (Comme une comète) | Ariane Louis-Seize |
| International Competition, Short Film | Filipiñana | Rafael Manuel |
| International Competition, Short Film Honorable Mention | Red Aninsri, or, Tiptoeing on The Still Trembling Berlin Wall | Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke |
| New Alchemists, Animated Short Film | Serial Parallels | Max Hattler |
| New Alchemists, National Dada Prize | Barcelona Burning (Barcelona de foc) | Theodore Ushev |
| New Alchemists, International Dada Prize | How to Disappear | Total Refusal |
| RPCÉ Grand Prize | Danica's Mom | Kennedy Kao |
| Pitch Premières Œuvres | Les Enfants du large | Virginia Tangvald | |
Official selections
International Competition
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| Abandonment | Desterro | Maria Clara Escobar | Brazil, Portugal, Argentina |
| Atlantis | Атлантида | | Ukraine |
| Bad Roads | Pohani dorohy | | Ukraine |
| The Cloud in Her Room | Ta fang jian li de yun | Zheng Lu Xinyuan | China, Hong Kong |
| Ecstasy | Êxtase | Moara Passoni | Brazil |
| Kill It and Leave This Town | Zabij to i wyjedź z tego miasta | Mariusz Wilczyński | Poland |
| Servants | Služobníci | Ivan Ostrochovský | Slovakia, Romania, Czech Republic, Ireland |
| The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs | Laila aur satt geet | Pushpendra Singh | India |
| This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection | | Lesotho, South Africa, Italy |
| Topside | | United States | |
National Competition
International Panorama
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| Apples | Mila | Christos Nikou | Greece |
| Cocoon | Kokon | Leonie Krippendorf | Germany |
| Drowsy City | Thanh Pho Ngu Gat | Dung Luong Dinh | Vietnam |
| If It Were Love | Si c'était de l'amour | | France |
| Moving On | Nam-Mae-Wui Yeo-Reum-Bam | Yoon Dan-bi | South Korea |
| Mum, Mum, Mum | Mamá, mamá, mamá | Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière | Argentina |
| Oasis | Oaza | Ivan Ikić | Serbia |
| Sisters with Transistors | Lisa Rovner | United States |
| A Thief's Daughter | La hija de un ladrón | | Spain |
| Wisdom Tooth | Ri Guang Zhi Xia | Liang Ming | China |
| A Yellow Animal | Um animal amarelo | Felipe Bragança | Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique | |
The New Alchemists (Les Nouveaux alchimistes)
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| DAU. Natasha | Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Jekaterina Oertel | Russia, Germany, Ukraine, United Kingdom |
| Khamsin | Grégoire Orio, Grégoire Couvert | France, Lebanon |
| Last and First Men | | Iceland |
| Maggie's Farm | | United States |
| Night Has Come | Peter Van Goethem | Belgium |
| Red Moon Tide | Lúa vermella | Lois Patiño | Spain |
| To the Moon | Tadhg O'Sullivan | Ireland | |
The Essentials (Les Incontournables)
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| Conference | Konferentsiya | | Russia, Estonia, United Kingdom, Italy |
| There Is No Evil | Sheytân vojūd nadârad | | Germany, Czech Republic, Iran |
| Undine | | Germany, France |
| Uppercase Print | Tipografic majuscul | | Romania |
| Wim Wenders, Desperado | Andreas Frege, Eric Friedler | Germany | |
Temps 0
Special Presentations
Cult Films at Ciné-Parc
International Competition for Short Films
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| Battlefield | Jannis Lenz | Austria, Germany |
| Digital Funeral: Beta Version | Sorayos Prapapan | Thailand |
| L'Effort commercial | Sarah Arnold | France |
| The End of Suffering (A Proposal) | To telos tou ponou (Mia protasi) | Jacqueline Lentzou | Greece |
| Erpe-Mere | Noemi Osselaer | Belgium |
| The Eyes of Summer | Gimhanaye Netra | Rajee Samarasinghe | Sri Lanka, United States |
| Filipiñana | Rafael Manuel | Philippines, United Kingdom |
| Fishbowl | Ngabo Emmanuel | Rwanda |
| Heaven Reaches Down to Earth | Tebogo Malebogo | South Africa |
| Lake on Fire | Sjö i brand | Jennifer Rainsford | Sweden |
| Maalbeek | Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis | France |
| Menarca | | Brazil |
| Motorway65 | Evi Kalogiropoulou | Greece |
| Our Kingdom | O Nosso Reino | Luis Costa | Portugal |
| Places | Miegamasis Rajonas | | Lithuania |
| Rain Hums a Lullaby to Pain | A chuva acalanta a dor | Leonardo Mouramateus | Portugal, Brazil |
| Red Aninsri, or, Tiptoeing on The Still Trembling Berlin Wall | Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke | Thailand |
| The Return of Tragedy | | France |
| Song of Clouds | Ankit Poudel | Nepal |
| Sudden Light | Sophie Littman | United Kingdom |
| Sun Dog | Dorian Jespers | Belgium, Russia |
| Talk to Her | Iwa | South Korea |
| This Means More | Nicolas Gourault | United Kingdom, France, Portugal |
| Towards Evening | Axşama doğru | | Azerbaijan |
| The Unseen River | Giòng Sông Không Nhìn Thấy | Phạm Ngọc Lân | Vietnam, Laos |
| Which Is Witch? | | France |
| White Goldfish | Jan Roosens, Raf Roosens | Belgium | |
National Competition for Short Films
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Province |
|---|
| Acting Out | Jean-Sébastien Beaudoin Gagnon | Quebec |
| Aniksha | | Quebec |
| As Spring Comes | Comme la neige au printemps | | Quebec |
| August 22, This Year | | Ontario |
| Benjamin, Benny, Ben | | Ontario |
| Every Day's Like This | Lev Lewis | Ontario |
| Father Neptune | Erik Horn | British Columbia |
| Fear in Motion | Jean-Christophe Yacono | Quebec |
| Foam | Écumne | Omar Elhamy | Quebec |
| Happy as Can Be | Chez les heureux de ce monde | Jean-François Sauvé | Quebec |
| Here at Home | À la maison | Renaud Ouimet | Quebec |
| Inuit Languages in the 21st Century | Ulivia Uviluk | Quebec |
| Moon | Lune | | Quebec |
| Nadia | Malorie Urbanovitch | Quebec |
| Parlour Palm | Rebeccah Love | Ontario |
| Point and Line to Plane | | Ontario |
| The Pond, at Night | L'Étang, la nuit | Olivia Boudreau | Quebec |
| Shooting Star | Comme une comète | | Quebec |
| Spring Tide | Jean Parsons | British Columbia |
| Storm Child | L'Enfant-tempête | Ines Guennaoui | Quebec |
| Sunken Cave and a Migrating Bird | Qiuli Wu | British Columbia |
| Vaivén | Nisha Platzer | British Columbia |
| Zen Basketball | | Ontario | |
The New Alchemists, Short Films
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| Aletsch Negative | Laurence Bonvin | Switzerland |
| Alltöting | Andreas Hykade | Germany, Canada, Portugal |
| Barcelona Burning | Barcelona de Foc | | Canada, Spain |
| Blue Lips | Lèvres bleues | Philippe Hamelin | Canada |
| Coldshot | Evan Collis | Canada |
| Disappearing Silence | Le Silence a disparu | Sarah Seené | Canada |
| Dissolution Prologue (Extended Version) | Siegfried Fruhauf | Austria |
| Drink Some Darkness | Trevor Mowchun | Canada |
| Earthbound | Terrestres | Normand Rajotte | Canada |
| Forwards, Backwards | Mitchell Stafiej | Canada |
| Glimmer | Dan Browne | Canada |
| Grand-maman piano | Guillaume Vallée | Canada |
| Here and There | Aquí y allá | Melisa Liebenthal | Argentina, France |
| How to Disappear | Total Refusal | Austria |
| Imperial Irrigation | Lukas Marxt | Austria, Germany |
| Inflorescence | Nicolaas Schmidt | Germany |
| Instructions for Robots | | Canada |
| The long wail of a passing train slips into the heart of the ghosts and everything explodes in silence | Le long cri du train qui passe se glisse au coeur des spectres et tout explose en silence | Anne-Marie Bouchard | Canada |
| Marcel Broodthaers in Conversation with Hideaki Anno and Akhenaten | Marcel Broodthaers en conversation avec Hideaki Anno et Akhenaton | Julie Tremble | Canada |
| May 35 | Tina Takemoto | United States |
| Meine Liebe | Clara Jost | Portugal |
| Mood Hall | Takumi Kawai, Hiroki Okamura | Japan |
| Mr. Carreaux | Marie-Hélène Turcotte | Canada |
| Notes, Imprints (On Love): Part 1 | Alexandra Cuesta | United States, Ecuador |
| One | Anouk De Clercq | Belgium, Norway |
| The Peepul Tree | Sonja Feldmeier | Switzerland |
| Push This Button If You Begin to Panic | Gabriel Böhmer | United Kingdom |
| Recoding Entropia | François Vautier | France |
| The Roses of Damascus | Les Roses de Damas | Gabriel Gonzalez Guirola, Yasmina Touzani | France |
| The Selkie | Monade Li | France |
| Serial Parallels | | Hong Kong, Germany |
| Sfumato | Robert Seidel | Germany, United States |
| Something to Remember | Något att minnas | | Sweden |
| There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here | Rainer Kohlberger | Austria, Germany |
| Thorax | Siegfried Fruhauf | Austria |
| Untitled Sequence of Gaps | Vika Kirchenbauer | Germany |
| The Walk | La Marche | Yoakim Bélanger | Canada |
| When We Are Nothing Left | Milja Viita | Canada, Finland | |
RPCÉ Canadian Student Short Film Competition
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Province |
|---|
| 33' Lot | Sarah Genge | British Columbia |
| L'Abat | Olivier Côté | Quebec |
| Adelante | Romy Boutin St-Pierre | Quebec |
| Cave In | Mathilde Chamussy, Gabrielle Chicoine, Marie-Ève Drolet | Quebec |
| The Cold | Le Froid | Natalia Duguay | Quebec |
| Danica's Mom | Kennedy Kao | Ontario |
| Eve and Fatima | Ève et Fatima | Julie Redon | Quebec |
| Familiar | Cécilia Alain | Quebec |
| Hope | Kwizera | Romeo Axcel Uwemera | Quebec |
| I Must Be Going | Jack Pocaluyko | Ontario |
| Kijâtai | Kijâtai-Alexandra Veillette-Cheezo | Quebec |
| Léphémer | Anne Delarue | Quebec |
| The Mediator | Le Médiateur | Philippe Besner | Quebec |
| Mitochondrial | Laura Kamugisha | Quebec |
| Monstre d'eau douce | Maxym Bronsard | Quebec |
| Promise Me | | Ontario |
| Sleeping with the Fishes | Jordan Beck Crouse | Nova Scotia |
| Take Me | Prends-moi | Chloé Sirois, Samuel Boucher, Ali Dupont-Proulx | Quebec | |
RPCÉ Partner: National University of Colombia
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Province |
|---|
| Manacillo | Nicolás Garcés | Colombia |
| No lo encuentro | Mariana Jiménez |
| Umbral | Juan Francisco Rodriguez | |
P'tits loups
Short film program of animation for children.
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| À la mode | Jean Lecointre | France |
| And Yet We're Not Super Heroes | On est pas prêts d'être des super héros | Lia Bertels | Belgium |
| Archie | Ainslie Henderson | United Kingdom |
| Athleticus 2: Luge | Nicolas Deveaux | France |
| Athleticus 2: Une patinoire pour deux | Nicolas Deveaux | France |
| Autumn Winds, Spring Winds and Two Doves | Le Vent d'automne, le vent de printemps et les deux coulombes | Sadegh Javadi Nikjeh | Iran, France |
| Away | Au large | Mathilde Pepinster | Belgium |
| Boriya | Sung Ah Min | France, South Korea |
| Dorothy the Rambler | Dorothy la vagabonde | Emmanuelle Gorgiard | France |
| The Horn Quartet: Up to the Mountain | Le Quatuor des cornes: Là-haut sur la montagne | Benjamin Botella, Arnaud Demuynck | France, Belgium |
| The Kindergarten Show | Le Spectacle de maternelle | Loïc Bruyère | France |
| The Last Day of Autumn | Le Dernier jour de l'automne | Marjolaine Perreten | Switzerland, France, Belgium |
| Leaf | Listek | Aliona Baranova | Czech Republic |
| A Lynx in the Town | Un Lynx dans la ville | Nina Bisiarina | France, Switzerland |
| Mishou | Milen Vitanov | Germany, Bulgaria |
| Non-Non Gets Shrunk | Non-Non rétrécit | Wassim Boutaleb Joutei | France |
| Northern Lights | Au pays de l'aurore boréale | Caroline Attia | France, Switzerland |
| Promenade sentimentale | Émilie Tronche | France |
| Setting Suns | Soleils couchants | Aurélie Montèix | France |
| Sweet Night | Nuit chérie | Lia Bertels | Belgium |
| The Tiger and His Master | Le Tigre et son maître | Fabrice Luang-Vija | France, Belgium |
| To the Dusty Sea | À la mer poussière | Héloïse Ferlay | France |
| Umbrellas | Parapluies | José Prats, Alvaro Roblès | France, Spain |
| Under the Ice | Sous la glace | Milan Baulard, Ismail Berrahma, Flore Dupont, Laurie Estampes, Quentin Nory, Hugo Potin | France | |
FNC Explore
Virtual reality projects.
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|
| 1st Step: From Earth to the Moon | Jörg Courtial, Maria Courtial | Germany |
| Agence | Pietro Gagliano | Canada |
| Black Bag | Qing Shao | China |
| The Book of Distance | | Canada |
| Daughters of Chibok | Joel Benson | Nigeria |
| Dreamin' Zone | Fabienne Giezendanner | France, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea |
| The Hangman at Home 3D | | Denmark, France, Canada |
| Hominidae | Brian Andrews | United States |
| In the Land of the Flabby Schnook | Au pays du cancre mou | Francis Gélinas | Canada |
| The Line | Ricardo Laganaro | Brazil |
| Meet Mortaza | Josephine Derobe | France, Belgium |
| Minimum Mass | Raqi Syed, Areito Echevarria | New Zealand, France, United States |
| Mirror: The Signal | Pierre Zandrowicz | France, Belgium |
| Missing Pictures: Bird of Prey | Clément Deneux | France, United Kingdom, Taiwan |
| O | Qiu Yang | Taiwan |
| An Ode to Moss | SU | Taiwan |
| Passenger | Sobel Knowles, Van Sowerwine | Australia |
| The Passengers | Les Passagers: elle et lui | | Canada, France |
| Recoding Entropia | François Vautier | France | |
Films planned but not screened
Due to the last-minute cancellation of in-person screenings, some films that had been scheduled by the festival that had been planned for in-person rather than online screenings were not included in the festival.[5]
Notes and References
- Alex Rose, "Here’s what’s on at the Festival du nouveau cinéma 2020". Cult MTL, October 1, 2020.
- Lauren Malyk, "Festival du nouveau cinema’s 11th hour pivot". Playback, October 1, 2020.
- Gabriel Sigler, "Montreal’s FNC film festival goes 100% virtual, announces complete lineup". Bad Feeling, October 1, 2020.
- François Lévesque, "Horizons virtuels". Le Devoir, October 7, 2020.
- Odile Tremblay, "Un FNC dans la tempête". Le Devoir, October 15, 2020.
- Amélie Revert, "«Atlantis», «Sin La Habana» et «Judy vs Capitalism» au palmarès du FNC". Métro, October 19, 2020.
- https://ctvm.info/devoilement-du-palmares-2020-de-la-49e-edition-du-fnc/ "Dévoilement du Palmarès 2020 de la 49e édition du FNC"
