Midway between Paris and the Mediterranean coast, France’s Clermont-Ferrand has become the world’s preeminent hub for short-form cinema, hosting both a festival and a market with unparalleled international reach.
Now celebrating its 46th edition – which runs Jan. 31 – Feb. 8 – the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival has long been a springboard for emerging auteurs, once upon a time shining a spotlight on little-known names like Jane Campion, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Chloé Zhao and Denis Villeneuve.
“We’re not here to ‘discover’ anyone but rather to support and highlight talent, creating opportunities for filmmakers to connect with production houses, distributors, and other festivals,” says Clermont-Ferrand programmer and coordinator Julie Rousson. “And as a short film spotlight, we really feel like we’re capturing a snapshot of the entire world in a single week.”
Rousson and her fellow programmers – all of them sharing equal footing in an expressly non-hierarchal organization – culled through more than 8,000 submissions to put together this year’s lineup, which represents 49 countries and boasts 41 world premieres in the international competition alone.
Popular on Variety
Much of that selection shares a sense of immediacy — with the 64 films slotted for Clermont-Ferrand’s international competition speaking to an unsteady world in as close to real-time as filmmaking can get.
‘Rhubarb Rhubarb’
Credit: Clermont-Ferrand
“[Because of their more expedited production schedules], short films can react much faster to current events, making them an immediate response to the world’s ongoing issues,” says Rousson. “As a result, these films reflect the most pressing issues of our time.”
“We’ve particularly noticed filmmakers exploring imagination – whether it’s through traditional storytelling, like fairy tales, or venturing into experimental territory,” the programmer continues, remarking upon a rise in more “narrative filmmaking” that threads social commentary through touches of comedy and horror in lieu of kitchen-sink realism.
Whether through narrative fiction, animation or documentary, this year’s selection showcases a number of intimate and introspective narratives that often use the familial unit as a structure within which characters can either reveal themselves or struggle to break free.
Speaking with Variety, a number of Clermont-Ferrand programmers pointed toward Kate McMullen’s “Rhubarb Rhubarb” as a standout title – one encompassing many of this year’s trends.
Awash in candlelight chiaroscuro and punctuated with witty repartee, the film initially seems like a quirky comedy about a father and daughter struggling with their rhubarb farm. Only that genteel veneer soon gives way to a more scathing national x-ray, satirizing post-Brexit malaise alongside broader issues of immigration and national identity.
“[Through visually striking comedy, the film] underscores this obsession with not wanting to hire ‘the other,’ even when ‘the other’ takes on work that citizens don’t want,” says Rousson. “And this, of course, has striking parallels with what’s happening in the U.S.”
A Market in Bloom
Running concurrent to the festival from Feb. 3 – 6, the Clermont-Ferrand short film market reaches its 40th edition this year.
Open to finished titles alongside projects in development, the industry component is well on track to best 2024’s attendance records, welcoming north of 3,500 accredited professionals on site with another 700 or so online – among them international distributors and broadcasters, Netflix execs and festival programmers from Cannes and all affiliated sidebars, Toronto, South by Southwest, Locarno and many more.
The market’s staggering breadth is no doubt part of the lure, giving accredited participants access to an online video library that hosts every project submitted to the wider festival. In practical terms, the more than 8,000 library titles account for 80%-90% of annual short film productions – making Clermont-Ferrand’s particular market a microcosm of the global short film marketplace.
“It’s still Clermont,” says Rousson with a grin. “Our market is held in a small gymnasium, so everything remains on a modest scale.”
Of course, one could read that gymnasium floor plan for industry trends. What began as a small stand from the Dakar Court festival will now spread to a full corner of the room, welcoming a delegation of more than 30 African delegates while reflecting a growing vitality within African film production. Absent since 2019, U.K. delegates will be back in full swing with a strong Scottish presence redolent of a more collective approach – and for that, organizers are beaming.
“This truly marks the return of U.K. professionals and the revival of an entire network that thrives in Clermont-Ferrand,” says Rousson.
Focus on Lebanon
‘Waves ’98’
Beiruti filmmakers will take center stage at both the market and within the wider festival as part of this Focus on Lebanon.
Complementing the masterclasses and market sessions, Clermont-Ferrand will spotlight autodidact auteur Wissam Charaf – who has long ties to the festival, serving on the 2020 jury before himself winning a jury prize last year – alongside a program highlighting 20 recent titles that organizers refuse to call a “retrospective.”
“This focus aims to mirror the current state of Lebanese cinema,” says Rousson, adding that the festival has worked towards this spotlight for years.
“While not a reaction to current events in Lebanon, this two-decade focus underscores that Lebanon has experienced political, economic, and conflict-related crises for much longer and that these tensions permeate Lebanese cinema – especially the shorts [that] capture looming fears that, unfortunately, became reality a bit later. So this program really lives in tandem with current events.”
Additional sessions include a panel about documenting and archiving during wartime, focusing on the work of journalist and filmmaker Jocelyne Saab and an entire series dedicated to sound that will include a masterclass with Oscar-winning sound designer – and member of this year’s jury – Michelle Couttolenc (“Sound of Metal”).
‘Warsha’