19/04/2022 - Independent film is set to be showcased in this nine-film-strong selection comprising five works of fiction and four documentaries, and including new movies by Damien Manivel and Jan Gassmann

True to its editorial line and commitment to shine a light on high-quality independent works, which aren’t enjoying the circulation they need in the current context of en masse releases, the ACID (Association for the Circulation of Independent Film) competition has unveiled its 35th line-up which is due to be presented on the Croisette between 18^th and 27^th May, within the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The selection consists of 9 feature films (of which seven will be screening in world premieres and five are first films), comprising five works of fiction and four documentaries.

Magdala [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel
film profile] by Damien Manivel steals particular focus within the showcase. It’s the 5th feature film offered up by the fascinating French director who previously gave us A Young Poet [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (awarded a Special Mention in Locarno’s Cinéastes du Présent section in 2014), The Park [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (gracing Cannes’ ACID selection in 2016), The Night I Swam [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel, Kohei Igara…
film profile] (Venice’s Orizzonti line-up in 2017) and Isadora’s Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel
film profile] (which scooped the Leopard for Best Direction in Locarno 2019 and a Zabaltegi Tabakalera Special Mention in San Sebastián). The winner of the Eurimages Lab Project Award within the Work in Progress section of the 12th Les Arcs Film Festival, this new opus starring the famous American choreographer Elsa Wolliaston in its lead role revisits the road walked by Mary Magdalene following Jesus’s death.

Equally eye-catching on the agenda is 99 Moons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan Gassmann
film profile], which is the second feature film put forth by Switzerland’s Jan Gassmann after Off Beat [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (selected in the 2011 Berlinale’s Panorama section) and his fifth feature film overall, given that the director also has three documentaries under his belt: Chrigu [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Berlinale Forum 2007), Karma Shadub (walking away with the Grand Prize at the 2013 Visions du Réel Festival) and Europe, She Loves [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan Gassmann
film profile] (gracing the 2016 Berlinale’s Panorama Dokumente line-up).

Two French first fiction features also stand tall in the selection, namely Luca Delangle’s The Strange Case of Jacky Caillou [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Martin Jauvat’s Grand Paris, which charts the misadventures of two suburban youngsters who discover a mysterious artefact responsible for strange phenomena.

Last but not least in the field of fiction, there’s Yamabuki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Juichiro Yamasaki’s third feature film, which is a French-Japanese co-production previously unveiled (online) in the last Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger competition.

Standing out in the documentaries line-up, there’s the latest opus by seasoned French filmmaker Denis Gheerbrant who’s returning to Cannes’ ACID showcase for the third time (after La vie est immense et pleine de dangers in 1995, and Après, un voyage dans le Rwanda in 2004) having teamed up with another, for the very first time, in order to make this Kyrghyzstan-set film: Lina Tsrimova (who co-wrote the script of the filmmaker’s previous opus Before the Sky Came to Light).

Ainara Vera’s French-Greenlandic documentary Polaris [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ainara Vera
film profile] - the first feature film directed by the Spaniard who made her name as the editor of Viktor Kossakovskiy’s Gunda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Aquarela [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Victor Kossakovsky
film profile] - likewise transports us elsewhere, following in the wake of a ship’s captain in the Arctic.

Echoes of the modern world will be especially vibrant in Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s How to Save a Dead Friend [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which delves into the lives of two loved-up Russian teenagers who have filmed their day-to-day lives for the past ten years. Produced by Sweden, Norway, France and Germany, this documentary recently bagged a Special Mention in the Visions du Réel Festival’s International Competition.

Worth a final mention is Atlantic Bar [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the first feature-length documentary by France’s Fanny Molins who sets her camera down in a bar in Arles. The venue acts as an epicentre of humanity, dominated by its landlady, but her decision to put it on the market leaves her regulars reeling.

The full selection is as follows:

99 Moons [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan Gassmann
film profile] – Jan Gassmann (Switzerland)
Atlantic Bar [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Fanny Molins (France)
The Hill [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Denis Gheerbrant and Lina Tsrimova (France)
Grand Paris - Martin Jauvat (France)
How to Save a Dead Friend [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Marusya Syroechkovskaya (Sweden/Norway/France/Germany)
The Strange Case of Jacky Caillou [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Luca Delangle (France)
Magdala [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Damien Manivel
film profile] – Damien Manivel (France)
Polaris [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ainara Vera
film profile] – Ainara Vera (France/Greenland)
Yamabuki [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Juichiro Yamasaki (Japan/France)

(Translated from French)