The beginning of the spring season has seen French short films selected at a host of international film festivals in Belgium, Finland, Quebec, Hong Kong, and the United States.
In March, 121 French short films were selected at international festivals with which UniFrance is a partner—for the most part animated films—with nine of these titles sharing eleven awards between them:
Anima – Brussels International Animation Film Festival (March 1–10, 2019), Belgium
- Anima Grand Prize:
In this film we celebrate the exceptional character that was Rosto, a Dutch writer and musician who passed away at the age of fifty just as he was preparing to make his first feature film. Reruns, the filmmaker's final opus, is a subtle invitation to visit the artist's childhood memories through an astonishing melting pot of real-life images in footage reworked in 3D.
- Grand Prize from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles:
Under the Rib Cage by Bruno Tondeur
- Be TV Prize:
Under the Rib Cage by Bruno Tondeur
- Special Jury Prize in the International Competition:
I’m Going Out For Cigarettes by Osman Cerfon
- Creative Revelation Prize:
Grand Bassin by Héloïse Courtois, Chloé Piat, Victori Jalabert, and Adèle Raigneau
- Jury Prize, VR Competition:
Gloomy Eyes by Jorge Tereso and Fernando Maldonado
- Audience Prize for a VR Production:
The Scream VR by Sandra Paugam and Charles Ayats
REGARD - Festival International du court-métrage au Saguenay (March 13–17)—Quebec
- Grand Prize:
- Award for Best Animation:
- Quebec Critics' Prize:
- International Critics' Special Mention:
Black Forest by Jean-Marc E. Roy and Philippe David Gagné
Since its inception, REGARD has established itself as a major international event in the short film sector. In comparison to the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, it remains an event on a human scale that attracts each year a large number of local movie enthusiasts and industry professionals from all over the world, who attend the event to exchange ideas and experiences, and perhaps to help the development of their projects in this genre, which is consistently gaining popularity with Quebec audiences. Movie attendance at this event in Quebec, which rose dramatically at the recent edition of the festival, in combination with a large number of market initiatives (such as the organization of workshops, lectures, "Cinema Lessons," and industry networking) have no doubt encouraged the event's organization committee to invest even more energy to make the REGARD 2020 a great success.
