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Next Step enters its 7th year courtesy of Cannes’ Critics’ Week

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- This week saw 10 young filmmakers take part in the programme steered by Cannes’ Critics’ Week and aimed at helping authors make the leap to feature films

Next Step enters its 7th year courtesy of Cannes’ Critics’ Week
The ten participants in the seventh session of Next Step

For the seventh consecutive year, and despite the cancellation of Cannes’ 2020 edition, the Critics’ Week team overseen by Charles Tesson has once again rolled out its Next Step initiative, aimed at helping young filmmakers (who have previously been selected to compete in Cannes’ parallel section) make the leap from short to full-length films. The programme notably includes a workshop (which has just taken place online, as a one-off), but also a competition, the victorious project of which is set to be announced on the Croisette in May (or potentially July, if the rumours on the continuation of health restrictions are anything to go by). Winners of previous editions (which have supported upwards of 50 projects hailing from 29 countries) include João Paulo Miranda Maria with Memory House [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, Jonas Capignano with A Ciambra [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Carpignano
film profile
]
, Gitanjali Rao with Bombay Rose [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, Erwan Le Duc with The Bare Necessity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erwan Le Duc
film profile
]
and Sofia Quirós Ubeda with Land of Ashes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, not to mention Patrick Vollrath with 7500 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Patrick Vollrath
film profile
]
.

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Standing tall among the ten lucky filmmakers selected for the initiative’s 7th session is French director Naïla Guiguet with her work Alyson, which is steered in production by Alta Rocca Films. Immersed within the thumping beats of techno parties and tackling the topic of the families we choose for ourselves, the story paints the portrait of a young woman whose excessive lifestyle doesn’t quite fit her new status as a mother. When her significant other, a DJ, suddenly abandons her, Alyson must learn to be independent. Along the way, she meets Liv, a young Brazilian refugee, with whom she redefines her relationship vis-à-vis love and family.

Spanish filmmaker Lucía Aleñar Iglesias has been selected, with her work Forastera, a project overseen by Marta Cruañas Compés. The story centres on 16-year-old Antonia who spends her summer holidays at her grandparents’ in Majorca. But when her grandmother suddenly passes away, grieving Antonia, on the hunt for new experiences, slips into the clothes of the deceased. This trivial gesture will soon blur her identity: her grandfather recognizes his late wife in her and her mother behaves like a young girl in her presence. As the summer flows strangely by, Antonia learns that to grow up means to discover who really lies within us.

English director Molly Manning Walker, meanwhile, is working on How to Have Sex, a project steered by Wild Swim Films. The story delves into a typically British rite of passage where young women spend their holidays in Majorca with a view to losing their virginity at orgiastic parties. We follow the journey of three friends, Zara, Em and Skye, who contend with peer pressure in their decision to “do it”.

Belgian brothers Jan Roosens and Raf Roosens have likewise been selected with Beats of Love, a project produced by Savage Film and Rococo. The story follows 13-year-old Gloria whose parents – a former successful musical duo – are getting a divorce. Forced to choose who she wants to live with, she opts for her mother, who has remained free and true to her musical aspirations, rather than her father, who has simply settled. But when Gloria falls in love with Imre, a mysterious 17-year-old girl and musician, her creative, burgeoning love makes her reassess her views on her parents and the complexity of love.

For his part, Portugal’s Duarte Coimbra is developing The Jacaranda Storm, produced by Uma pedra no sapato. The plot revolves around 23-year-old Helena who is questioning her future. She drops out of school, breaks up with her boyfriend and returns home to live with her parents, finding regressive comfort in the family unit. At a party, she meets a mysterious young couple, João and Teresa, two environmental activists who seem to harbour a utopian plan to sail to a new world…

Two French co-productions also feature among the selection: Ainda by Brazil’s Lillah Halla (co-produced by In Vivo Films and revolving around a 16-year-old teenage girl whose life is shattered by an unwanted pregnancy) and Some Rain must Fall by China’s Qiu Yang (co-produced by Why Not and starring as its protagonist a 40-year-old housewife who has lost track of who she is and who she wants to be, and who finds her life spinning out of control in the wake of a rather trivial event).

Last but not least, Azerbaijani filmmaker Teymur Hajiyev and Canadian director Graham Foy are also in the game, offering up Man in a Blue Sweater and The Maiden, respectively.

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(Translated from French)

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