A Gentle Night wins Palme D’or for Best Short

Qui Yang’s A Gentle Night (pictured) has won the Palme D’or for Best Short film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The Chinese film is an affecting affair about a mother searching the streets for her missing daughter. The international distribution of the film is handled by New Europe Film Sales while festivals are handled by Some Shorts.

Over in the Cinéfondation section Costa Rica native Valentina Maurel garnered first prize for her gently surreal Paul est là (Paul Is Here). The film, a product of Belgium’s Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle et des Techniques de Diffusion (INSAS), is the story of the ambiguous relationship between a woman and an older man that veers between the familial and the sexual. The first prize means that Maurel’s first feature is guaranteed to screen in Cannes.

The second prize of Cinefondation went to Heyvan (Animal), by Bahram and Bahman Ark, students from the Iranian National School of Cinema.  The renowned film school La Femis claims credit for the third prize with Tommaso Usberti’s Deux Egares Sont Morts (Two Youths Died). The film follows a young couple whose first date in the wilds is interrupted by the girl’s father.

In Critics’ Week, the Leica Cine Discovery Prize for short films went to Spanish film Los Desheredados by Laura Ferrés. The film follows the director’s father as he prepares for the end of his business. The Canal + Award for Best Short Film went to The Best Fireworks Ever (Najpiękniejsze fajerwerki ever) by Aleksandra Terpińska, already known for such films as All Souls’ Day and Chicken. The Polish film is a raw and angry examination of Poland in the near future as riots and a dictatorial government strip away the hope of a young generation.

In Director’s Fortnight the Illy Short Film Prize was nabbed by Back To Genoa City by Benoit Grimalt, a documentary about the director returning to Nice after 20 years where his grandmother and uncle will fill him on the thousands of episodes of a soap opera he has missed whilst he has been away.

29 May 2017, by Cineuropa Shorts