Solarium, the ambitious debut short film by Jonathan Koulavsky, has won the 2021 Unifrance Grand Prize for a Short Film.
26 films, the work of 16 female directors and 17 male directors, made up the 2021 selection for the UniFrance Short Film Awards—26 stories that bear witness to the inventiveness of new generation filmmakers and confirm the vitality of the short film sector.
In addition to the Official Jury, a jury of 16 young foreign industry professionals under the age of thirty offered their perspective on this world of promising talents.
The juries gathered on June 28 and 29 to vote on their choices, which we are delighted to announce today at the 74th Cannes Film Festival:
GRAND PRIZE
- Solarium by Jonathan Koulavsky – Producer: Alice Bloch (Marianne Productions)
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
- Horacio by Caroline Cherrier – Producer: Edwina Liard – Nidia Santiago (Ikki Films) – Coproducer: Luc Tharin (Innervision)
GRAND ACTION PRIZE & RTBF PRIZE
- Inspection by Caroline Brami & Frédéric Bas – Producer: Carine Ruszniewski (GoGoGo Films – de films en aiguille)
MOVISTAR+ PRIZE
- The World Within by Sandrine Stoïanov & Jean-Charles Finck – Producer: Jérôme Barthélemy & Daniel Sauvage (Caïmans Productions)
BE TV PRIZE
- Keep it Friendly by Martin Soudan – Producer: Arnaud Pessione & Adrien Guillon Verne (Les Films du Hardi)
YOUNG FOREIGN PROFESSIONALS JURY PRIZE
- The World Within by Sandrine Stoïanov & Jean-Charles Finck – Producer: Jérôme Barthélemy & Daniel Sauvage (Caïmans Productions)
JURY SPECIAL MENTIONS
Official Jury:
- The Bath by Anissa Daoud – Producer: Sébastien Hussenot (La Luna Productions) – Lotfi Achour & Olfa Ben Achour A.P.A - Artistes Producteurs Associés (Tunisia)
Official Jury & Young Foreign Professionals Jury:
- The Right Words by Adrian Moyse Dullin – Producer: Lucas Tothe & Sylvain Lagrillère (Punchline Cinéma)
Another major highlight of the day was the presentation of the 2021 Distribution Prize:
In their common desire to promote French productions internationally, UniFrance and La Fête du court métrage have joined forces to accompany and support the work of a distribution company, not only for the way it promotes works at foreign festivals, but also for its efforts to raise the visibility of these works in commercial circuits.
This year's Distribution Prize has been awarded to Olivier Berlemont – oriGine films.
Official Jury
- Guadalupe Arensburg Caellas – Movistar+ (Spain)
- Öktem Başol – Script adviser (Turkey)
- Benoît Berthe Siward – The Animation Showcase (UK)
- Bénédicte Bourgois – RTBF (Belgium)
- Holger Carlsson – Program director (USA)
- Alice Douard - Writer-director (France)
- Claude Duty – Filmmaker (France)
- Pascale Faure – Cinema consultant (France)
- Jean-Raymond Garcia – Writer-director (France)
- Isabelle Gibbal-Hardy – Grand Action Cinema (France)
- Hasan Ugur – Tübingen-Stuttgart International Film Festival (Germany)
- Canelle Kieffer – Production manager (France)
- Adrien Merigeau – Filmmaker, winner of the 2020 UniFrance Grand Prize (France)
- Angèle Paulino – TV5 Monde
- Regina Pessoa – Filmmaker–Illustrator (Portugal)
- Gilles Reunis – Be TV (Belgium)
- Jean-Marc Selva – Cinematographer (France)
Young Foreign Professionals Jury
- Mia Isabelle Carvalho-Brailsford (UK) – Coordinator of the Edinburgh Film Festival
- Andreia De Sousa (Portugal) – Assistant, Casa Museu de Vilar
- Giulia Delsanto (Italy) – International promotion, Italian Short Film Center
- Mansour Diallo (Senegal) – Director-producer, Circle Studio
- Léa Eigenmann (Switzerland) – Programming assistant, Neuchâtel Film Festival
- Sajida Hamdi (Tunisia) – Actor
- Éva Kabuya (Canada) – Filmmaker
- Murat Kilinc (Turkey) – Actor
- Emma Mitéran (Czech Republic) – Student at CVUT Prague
- Daria Mitiuk (Ukraine) – Independent producer
- Simon Natowitz (Belgium) – Assistant, Wallonie-Bruxelles Images
- Sao Mai Nguyen Ngoc (Vietnam) – Filmmaker
- Julia Skala (Germany) – Student at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
- Xenia Skvortsova (Russia) – Student at UCLA
- Moïse Togo (Mali) – Filmmaker
- Marco Tulio Pires (Brazil) – Producer, Utopie Films
UniFrance wishes to express our particular thanks to our partners for their loyal support:
TITRAFILM – Grand Action – shortfilmdepot – Courant3D – La Fête du court métrage
