Interview

“Making dreams come true”, Clermont-Ferrand, the world capital of short films, opens its film festival

This Friday, February 2, the largest short film festival in the world opens in Clermont-Ferrand, in central France. Aimed at both professionals and the general public, more than 160,000 festival-goers are expected for a program where women and Africa will be in the spotlight. Interview with President Eric Roux.

Detail of the poster for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. © SQPLCM

By: Siegfried Forster Follow

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: What will be the highlight of the 2024 edition

? Make us dream.

Eric Roux:

Making people dream is simple. These are the 426 screenings which screen 500 films to discover an absolutely wonderful diversity that comes from all over the world, from 55 countries. We give an important place to Africa, with countries like Rwanda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Egypt which are represented. There is both fiction and documentary, but also experiences, experimentation, cinematographic creation. It’s really a great diversity and we are expecting at least 160,000 festival-goers.

Clermont-Ferrand is the largest short film festival in the world. For you, what is its main role

?

There are two mechanisms in the Clermont-Ferrand short film festival: there are these numerous screenings, open to the general public and the Clermont public is very film-loving. However, you should know that two thirds of the festival entries are people who are not from the region, but a national or international audience. This is also a particularity of this festival. Then, we give an important place to the market, to the cinema business, since the aim of the festival is to be attentive to current cinema telling the world with its difficulties and its challenges and above all to be in the urgency of leave room for young talents. We allow all these young directors to show their ability to tell stories.

Among the twelve films in competition in the international selection, is there a theme that stood out this year

?

No, there is never an obvious theme. In the international selection, we have 70% fiction. The remaining 30% is shared equally between documentary and animation. We are very open to all cinematographic expressions.

Have the wars in Ukraine and Gaza had an impact on the number or subjects of films sent or selected

?

Short film cinema

is a creative cinema which gives an important part to current events

.

I could give you a few examples. An extraordinary Ukrainian film in competition recounts in an original way this 2014 disaster, of a Malaysia Airlines plane which was shot down over Ukraine [

shot down by a BUK surface-to-air missile, the plane was crashed in eastern Ukraine with 298 people on board

. Several countries accuse Russia of having played a role in this affair, Editor's note

]. To talk about an African subject:

L'Envoyée de Dieu

was co-produced by Niger, Burkina Faso and Rwanda. It's the story of a young woman with a belt of explosives in a market. At that moment, she finds herself face to face with her mother. This raises all the questions of these African youth about the relationship to terrorism and the violence that exists in certain countries. In the international competition, there are also two Palestinian films and one Israeli film selected. This is not something we are looking for a priori in the 9,400 films we received this year. But these are films which have a real cinematographic quality and which we found important to show to our audience.

What is the presence of Africa, African films and African directors at the Festival this year?

I would tend to say, as usual, Africa, a diverse Africa, has an important place in Clermont-Ferrand. We have traditional West African production. The Maghreb is perhaps a little less represented given complicated cultural and political situations. East Africa is represented by a Tanzanian film. I also observe a very particular production from

South Africa

, intended for the American market, and often not necessarily represented, even if production in South Africa is very important. Above all, we also have the specific program

Regards d'Afrique

, to really leave an important place for young directors, to help them and push them. This allows these young talents to express themselves on the Clermont-Ferrand stage where the whole world can see them.

Have the coups d'état in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and the withdrawal of France from these countries, these political crises, had an impact on local production or on the presence of African directors, for example in cause of difficulty obtaining a visa?

Going into details would be a bit complicated... I can just tell you: this year, like almost every year, films from Niger or Burkina Faso are present in Clermont-Ferrand. Certainly, there must be implications... These subjects will of course be at the heart of our discussions at the festival, in relation to this Africa which is so important for cinema.

Women are particularly in the spotlight this year in Clermont, both in front of and behind the camera. For example, all the jury members of the three most important competitions are exclusively women. What message are you sending to young male directors in this 2024 edition

?

The message is simple: leave room for women. This seems so obvious and so important to me. Women are great directors, great actresses, and therefore they have an important place in cinema. This is a bit of what we wanted to show and highlight in our programs which leave an important place for rebellious women and the subjects that these women bring to the cinema.

In France, the new Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, declared “rurality” as a priority. Already before, the Pays de Montbéliard was designated French Cultural Capital for 2024 and Bourges will be the European Capital in 2028. Despite this general movement towards a strengthening of culture in the provinces, your festival has suffered very significant accounts and budget cuts. How do you explain that

?

I'm not really able to explain it, since for us, it's a question. For this 2024 edition, we were forced to make savings to carry out the festival project. In the tradition of the Clermont-Ferrand short film festival, work aimed at rural audiences - what we call prevented or remote audiences - is the basis of our work. I could tell you lots of small towns across our large Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, where we focus in particular on

Short Circuits

. It's a selection, the festival's favorites, where we will meet in village halls, small country cinemas to disseminate this system of expression. This culture for all that Rachida Dati, the Minister of Culture, spoke about, is at the heart of our practice.

Yes, Bourges will be European Capital of Culture in 2028. We must not forget that Clermont-Ferrand was also a candidate for this tremendous cultural recognition which is the European Capital of Culture. And I would just like to note that in 2028, Clermont-Ferrand will inaugurate the Cité du Court. It’s really an extension of the energy of the Clermont-Ferrand short film festival all year round. It's a new place, a new dynamic, to make short films a system of expression and to nurture future directors, future actors and actresses in feature films, which is an extremely important industry in the French economy and in the European economy.

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Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, February 2 to 10

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