A glimpse at the Cannes short winners of 2016

This year’s Cannes Film Festival has come to a close and with it a number of short films have been awarded prizes. As always, the Cannes selection of competition shorts proves to be an eclectic selection as does the winners, though there is perhaps less consernation over the winners than there has proved to be over the features.

This year’s Palme D’Or for short film went to Spanish film Timecode (Dir. Juanjo Giménez, Spain, 2016) a whimsical and crowd pleasing effort that blurs the line between dance film and narrative. You can read the Cineuropa Shorts review of the film HERE

Speaking to Cineuropa Shorts after the victory, director Juanjo Giménez said:

“"You can make a career in film without making feature films. My next project will be another short film because shorts are the present and the future."

In the Cinefondation section the winner was Anna (Dir. Or Sinai, Israel, 2016 - pictured above), a film by Israeli filmmaker Or Sinai for Israel’s Sam Spiegel Film and TV School. The film follows a woman in her thirties who – on finding herself alone for the first time in a long time – returns to her small home town. All she wants is to feel like a woman again.

The film wins 15’000 Eur and a guarantee that Sinai’s first feature will screen in the Cannes Official Selection. Hamid Ahmadi – from the UK’s London Film School – won second prize for his short In The Hills and third prize was shared by animation The Noise Of Licking (Dir. Nadja Andrasev, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary) and The Guilt, Probably [La Culpa Probablemente] (Dir. Michael Labarca, Universidad de Los Andes, Venezuela).

In Director’s Fortnight, the winner of the Illy Short Film award went to Chasse Royale (Dirs. Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, France, 2016) the story of a 13 year-old-girl who is offered an audition. A special mention was given to Croatian film Beast [Zvir] (Dir. Miroslav Sikavica, Croatia, 2016)

Over in Critic’s Week the winner was In the Year of Monkey [Prenjak] (Dir. Wregas Bhanuteja , Indonesia, 2016) a complex and tender tale of voyeurism and commerce.

24 May 2016, by Laurence Boyce