Clermont-Ferrand Unveils poster for 40th edition

The 40th anniversary of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, which runs from 2nd-10th February 2018, will undoubtedly have a celebratory mood. Part of this mood is captured in the poster for the festival which Clermont-Ferrand revealed today.

The image has been created by Antoine Lopez and Isabelle Pio, who are better known under the nickname ‘Bologo', and have been responsible for posters in the festival’s past. In his guise as one of the founder members of Clermont, Lopez has in the past also given the creation of the Clermont poster to numerous different illustrators who come from various backgrounds.

Speaking about the design of the poster, under a title of ‘Short Films Under Your Skin’, Lopez says:

“The poster for the 40th edition of the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival was built around two main ideas.

The first was the idea of a homage to theater projectionists. Those are the celluloid men and women, the men and women of the dormer window who busy themselves in the darkness of their control rooms so that the show can come to light, burning brighter and brighter.

The second idea is a nod to the preceding thirty-nine editions. Anniversaries are always occasions to pause and look back at the road we've travelled.

We should also say a word about the logotype that is projected on the hand, representing the number forty. It is composed of the plus-sign, a 1 and a 0. In other words, the 40th edition marks the border between film and digital. Our nostalgia for the former should not stifle the other's prospects for even greater innovations in the art of the short form.

So in the end, we look backward to take stock of Festivals past and look forward to imagining the thousand and one short films shown by our magicians of shadow and light.

It was very exciting to work with Isabelle Pio on the poster for the 40th edition, so many years after making the one for year 1 (back in 1979). In fact, for this first glimpse of the 2018 edition, we invite everyone who has short films and the Festival under their skin to look closely at the tattoos and find the details that correspond to each of the thirty-nine preceding Festival posters. While you wait, naturally, for next February to come around... and discover a secret surprise on the 30x40 printed version of the poster."