Taking into account the impact of the public health crisis on film festivals, the Summer in French Shorts operation (July 8 - August 17) arose from Unifrance's desire to keep in touch with professionals from all over the world, by offering them the opportunity to familiarise themselves with its BtoB platform entirely dedicated to short films.
Based on the selection of the 39 films in the running for the UniFrance Short Film Awards, and in order to affirm its empathy for the short format, support filmmakers, and show the vitality of new generation cinema, UniFrance wished to throw a special spotlight on works that are only "small" in length.
Hence, from July 8 through August 17, and at a rate of a two-hour program per week, professionals from all over the world encountered singular worlds, in a rich palette of genres, forms, and tones: from comedy to drama, fantasy to surrealism. Whether they were first productions or works by already recognised filmmakers, these 39 stories provided food for thought, questioned the past, present, and future, and offered many fine promises of successes to come.
This exceptional summer program was also an opportunity to form a jury of fourteen young, French and international professionals under the age of 30.
They cast their vote for Thomas Vernay's Miss Chazelles (photo), which thus became the recipient of the Young Professionals Jury Award.
It should be noted that the showcasing of films, thanks to this first edition of Summer in French Shorts, has been a driving force in boosting viewing activity on the Short Film Gallery platform. At the end of the operation, analysis of the data collected showed a significant increase (+20%) in the number of streams over the reference period: 3053 in 2019 compared to 3780 this year.
The 39 films in the UniFrance Short Film Awards 2020 selection alone received 1,581 streams, spread over 16 countries, with France leading, followed by Germany, Canada, Belgium, and the United States.
The top five most popular works included:
