For its 30th anniversary edition, Cinemania will present 120 films from November 6 to 17, including numerous international, North American, Canadian and Quebec premier titles, selected among the best of French-speaking cinema of the year. For 12 days, the French-speaking 7th art, short, medium and long, will be celebrated in 6 cinemas in the city.
It is Shepherds, the 6th feature film from the Quebec filmmaker Sophie Deraspewhich will open the festival on November 6. The director delicately and intelligently addresses the harsh reality of the pastoral world, following the character of Mathyas, a young advertising executive who trades his life in Montreal to go to Provence to become a shepherd.
« Shepherds is for us a magnificent opportunity to find Sophie Deraspewho presented ANTIGONE in 2019 as the pre-opening of Cinemania. His new film addresses the disillusions of the agricultural world, the beauties of transhumance, its traditions as well as the men and women who do it. France being the country of honor for this 30th edition, this transatlantic cooperation between a filmmaker and a Quebec team in co-production with a French team reflects the essence and reason for being of Cinemania” declares Guilhem CaillardGeneral and Artistic Director of the festival. Eleven days later, on November 16, Jim’s novel French directors Jean-Marie et Arnaud Larrieuwill close the festival. This adaptation of the eponymous novel by Pierric Bailly met a vedette Karim Leklou, Laetitia Dosch, Sara Giraudeau et Bertrand Belin in an odyssey about fatherhood.
With France as the country in the spotlight to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the festival, cinema lovers will be able to find productions from the Quebec and international Francophonie in a selection of feature-length and short films rich in emotion. Over the years, the festival has established itself as an unmissable event for spectators to discover new products presented by renowned guests.
This year, the public will meet a cohort of exceptional guests who will travel to Montreal to talk with them. So, the director Patricia Mazuy will accompany his film The prisoner of Bordeaux; Cyrielle Raingou will present The specter of Boko HaramGolden Tiger at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2023; Julie Delpy will accompany his latest opus, Thes Barbarians; Julie Gayet will also be present for the international premiere of the film Olympe, a woman in the revolutionjust like Florent Bernard for his first film We, the Leroys featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg. Franck Dubosc will present his third film as director, A bear in the Jura.
French actress and director Celine Sallette will accompany his first film, NIKI. On the life of the famous painter and visual artist Niki de Saint Phalle whose art has always embraced all humans, nature and the cycle of life. During his career, the artist knew how to use joy as a strategy of resistance and contribute to social justice through different commitments: the fight for women’s rights, the fight against racism or even the early support given to AIDS patients. The director of the film, Celine Sallette will be accompanied by the Quebecois Charlotte Le Bon who brilliantly embodies Niki de Saint Phalle and of Damien Bonnard.
The latter is also the distribution of The Pampaa first queer work, that the image+nation festival will present at Cinemania in addition to 3 other films to mark the 30th anniversary of the French-speaking film festival, Cinemania.
Quality queer works
The Pampa
The Pampa is the chronicle of the friendship between Jojo and Willy, in the countryside of the Maine-et-Loire department. Jojo prepares, under the yoke of an authoritarian father, for a motocross championship, and Willy prepares for university, trying to overcome an introverted adolescence and the loss of his father. The director Antoine Chevrollier films adolescence so accurately that we sometimes think of a truth documentary, carried by a story which avoids clichés and surprises, both for the outline of the characters and for the essay on the unwavering friendship that it depicts. A little gem that seduced the last Cannes Critics’ Week.
Live, die reborn
In Live, die reborn the bodies and the destinies, the happiness and the misfortune, of two guys and a girl mingle during the AIDS years – we are in 1990 – and it is luminous. A trendy photographer evolving in the Parisian queer scene (Victor Belmondo), who has a series of adventures, falls madly in love with his new neighbor (Théo Christine) in a relationship with a woman. Gaël Morel reinvents the love triangle François Truffautin an essay on mourning that echoes his After readingi with Catherine Deneuve. A duty of cinematic memory on the AIDS generation before triple therapy and an ode to love – all loves – without the right to experience them being an issue.
Drama Queens
In a futuristic universe with highly queer imagery, a videographer (Bilal Hassani) recounts the rise to fame and decline of Mimi Mamadour, a megastar whom he continues to adore and stalk with his camera. The filmmaker Alexis Langlois revisits in The Queens of Drama all the pop culture and queer moments that marked her generation (Star Academy, Alizée, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Perez Hilton) in a film with a very personal visual signature, carried by the magnetism of the duo Louiza Aura/Gio Ventura. A film which could well mark the young queer generation with a style and eroticism in sync with them, and will delight the older ones with perfectly delivered referenced dialogues.
Foreign language
Fanny’s school language trip to Germany and her meeting with her local correspondent will transform into a fusional and toxic love story. With Foreign language, Claire Burger uses the universalism of the first trip alone abroad as a teenager to discuss the fragility of the personality, and what dangerous movement it can have when it is influenced or controlled. But in the second reading, the filmmaker also films the strength of commitment of a generation, the radicality of its actions, and the lack of in-depth reflection from which they result. Chiara Mastroianni et Nina Hoss offer highly appreciated adult figures mirroring the immaturity of their cinema girls.
As we can see, this year again, the festival will celebrate queer works by inviting the public to explore and appreciate the wealth of achievements from the LGBTQ+ community. “As part of its commitment to growing equity and inclusion within the industry, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) has partnered with numerous film festivals and organizations that provide voice to underrepresented groups in the field,” explains Matthew ChanteloisSenior Vice-President, Marketing and Public Affairs at FMC. “We are happy to support both the image+nation and Cinémania festival and to see these two festivals collaborate to discover, acclaim and adore the many stories that members of the LGBTQ2S+ community offer us. It’s great to see these two great festivals working together.”
Another film that should attract the attention of readers of Runaways (besides the magazine presents this film): The sea in the distance of Saïd Hamich Benlarbi, takes us into the life of Nour, an illegal immigrant in Marseille, who will radically change his vision of the world thanks to two powerful encounters. The Franco-Moroccan filmmaker continues with this second film the political essay discussed on Return to Bollèneallowing himself a historical return to the generation resulting from North African immigration in the 90s, the golden age of raï and the intermingling of cultures, in a France post-manifestation of the demands of 1983. Sublime, Ayoub Gretaa carries the film, assisted by Gregoire Colin et Anna Mouglalis.
Short films
The short film will also be in the spotlight, since two evenings will be devoted to it, that of the Quebec short and that of the international short. Among the short films, note An invisible summer d’Arnaud Dufeys which shows us Clément, 16 years old, who lies about his age on a dating application for a first date in person…
At the Kino Evening, Kinoïites will be invited to take up the monthly challenge under the theme Being 30 years old.
Documentary side
A French Youth, by Jérémie Battaglia, will be the opening film of the documentary competition. Were also selected Fear in my stomachof Léa Clermont-Dionet
The Passion according to Béatriceof Fabrice du Welz. In addition to this documentary where she goes to the filming locations of Pasolini, Béatrice Dalle will accompany Feeling sickdrama about a news item that shook Belgium from the same director. The boy co-directed by Zabou Breitman et Florent Vassault will invite you to see a dizzying family investigation, where reality and fiction mix. The public will be able to discover AVerroes and Rosa Parks of Nicolas Philibert in which the filmmaker, through individual interviews and “caregiver-patient” meetings, attempts to show a certain psychiatry. The gay director Sébastien Litshitz will present the daily life of Madame Hofmannhead of a palliative care unit in Marseille, in thunderous days between hospital and home, balancing the strong daily emotional burdens of his profession. As usual, the filmmaker acts as the cinematic spokesperson for those who are sometimes applauded, but whose heroism is often forgotten.
Furthermore, to celebrate its 30th anniversary, the festival will inaugurate the Cinemania VR component, where six immersive works will be presented, including Otto’s Planet. Produced by Luxembourg, Quebec and France, this short film in virtual and mixed reality from Gwenael François won the special jury prize in the Venice Immersive section at the Mostra.
INFOS | https://festivalcinemania.com
Tickets are on sale at the following prices: between $8 and $14.50 depending on the category
BOOKLET AND PASSPORTS
CARNET 6 FILMS – $75.00
UNLIMITED PASSPORT – $200.00
UNLIMITED PASSPORT 30 YEARS AND UNDER – $120.00
UNLIMITED INDUSTRY PASSPORT – $150.00
At the Cineplex Odeon Latin Quarter Cinema, at the Museum Cinema, at the Parc Cinema,
at the Monument-National, the Cinémathèque québécoise as well as the Cinéma Moderne.
Note that the films Drama Queens and Foreign Language will also be
presented as part of the image+nation festival.
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