“Postman” by Russian filmmaker Klim Tukaev has won the first prize at the sixth Nespresso Talents global short film competition.
“Bagman,” by Jan Kellner, took the second prize, while “Speaking in Flowers,” by Nicolina Sterbet, took third. Both are from the Czech Republic.
The winners were selected by the competition’s international jury, which includes actors Mark Chao (“Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings”) and Zita Hanrot (“Paul Sanchez est revenu!”), world explorer and adventurer Mike Horn, writer, director and Nespresso Talents 2020 winner Faride Schroeder (“Oasis”) and actor and director Sonia Rolland (“Madame”).
A total of 993 short films were submitted from 60 countries and 15 were shortlisted.
The awards ceremony took place on Friday at the Palais des Festivals with the participation of the jury members, guests and the winning filmmakers. Each winner received, in addition to the opportunity of attending the the Cannes Film Festival, a mentoring session with cinema experts and a cash prize.
“Nespresso Talents is an opportunity to foster incredible creative talent while engaging with a younger audience that embraces innovation with a disruptive spirit. We are delighted to see so many talented filmmakers joined the movement and shared their creations, increasing our participation rate by 25% compared to last year’s edition,” said Anna Lundstrom, chief brand officer at Nespresso.
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This year’s competition theme was “Doing Is Everything.” Nespresso has pledged to offset its carbon footprint and is honoring its pledge by offering each participating filmmaker the opportunity to support agroforestry projects by sponsoring the planting of five trees. These trees will contribute to a large-scale initiative in partnership with PUR Project, transitioning coffee smallholders into organic coffee production through agroforestry, bringing to life the company’s “Doing Is Everything” movement. A total of 4,965 trees will be planted in La Giorgia, Costa Rica.