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Film Festival
of Villa Medici 2024
11.09 - 15.09.2024
Since its creation in 2021, the Villa Medici Film Festival has explored the links between cinema and contemporary art. Artists’ films, essays, fiction, documentaries, shorts, medium-length and feature-length films: the festival welcomes a diversity of narratives that question our relationship with images.
The fourth edition took place from September 11 to 15, 2024, with nearly 40 screenings organized indoors and outdoors at Villa Medici.
The Festival is divided into three sections: International Competition, Focus and Piazzale Evenings.
The International Competition
The International Competition presents twelve recent films of all genres and lengths. At the end of the festival week, two prizes are awarded by the jury at a ceremony attended by the public and artists: the Prix Villa Médicis for Best Film and the Prix du Jury.
Focus
Focus sessions feature screenings of out-of-competition films, as well as encounters. Proposed by the members of the jury, the Cartes blanches are an opportunity to share special moments around films linked to their activities as artists, filmmakers, authors or curators.
The Contrechamp sessions offer a dialogue between films, documentary or fictional, historical or contemporary, notably by Villa Medici artist-filmmakers.
Piazzale Evenings
Alongside the daytime screenings, festival-goers gather every evening on the Piazzale, in front of the historic façade of Villa Medici, for exceptional open-air screenings of recent films, including previews and restored classics.
The program
A FIDAI FILM, Kamal Aljafari
(2024, Germany, Palestine, Qatar, Brazil, France, 78') Roman premiere
Investigating the looting of Palestinian films which took place in Beirut, at Palestine Research Center, in 1982, the film proposes a counter-narrative of a continuous history of appropriation.
VO Arabic, Hebrew, English / ST English
Trigger Warning
BOOMERANG, Maïder Fortuné
(2024, France, 13') International premiere
The Canebière, a building raised in Marseille on the eve of the Algerian War, is conceived as a body explored by the camera. The building awakens through the sound of mixed voices, including that of James Baldwin.
VO French
DAU:AÑCUT (MOVING ALONG IMAGE), Adam Piron
(2023, USA, 15') Italian premiere
In 2014, the filmmaker discovered an Ukranian man bearing the tattoo of a relative in traditional Amerindian dress. Stitched together from footage of the search for this man, the film explores the consequences of the loss of control over an image and time’s circular ironies.
VO English, Kiowa
È A QUESTO PUNTO CHE NASCE IL BISOGNO DI FARE STORIA, Constanze Ruhm
(2024, Austria, Portugal, 96') Italian premiere
Delving into the work of Italian feminist and co-founder of Rivolta Femminile, Carla Lonzi, the film takes us on a time-travel through a history of violence against women, while paying homage to feminist artists from the 17th century until today.
VO German, Italian / ST English
FAMILIAR TOUCH, Sarah Friedland
(2024, USA, 90') Roman premiere
Lion of the Future Award, 81st Venice Film Festival
A coming of (old) age film, Familiar Touch follows an octogenarian woman's transition to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.
VO English / ST Italian
HOW LOVE MOVES, Pallavi Paul
(2023, India, 63') Italian premiere
The film is set in an Islamic cemetery in the heart of New Delhi. It is where the scars of the pandemic, communal violence coexist alongside a transcendental beauty. A gravekeeper and his unwavering love for the dead become our portal into this world.
VO Hindi, English/ ST English
MAN NUMBER 4, Miranda Pennell
(2024, UK, 10') Italian premiere
A confrontation with a disturbing photograph found on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.
VO English
PEPE, Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias
(2024, Dominican Republic, Namibia, Germany, France, 123') Roman premiere
Silver Bear, Director's Award Berlin Festival 2024
A voice that claims to be from a hippopotamus. A voice that doesn’t understand the perception of time. Pepe, the first and last hippo killed in the Americas, tells his story with the overwhelming orality of these towns.
VO Spanish, African, Mbukushu, German / ST English
REAL, Adele Tulli
(2024, Italy, France, 90') Italian premiere
As human beings made of flesh, we now spend most of our time in a digital landscape, seeking happiness, wealth, relationships, knowledge, and experiences. What is today’s reality made of?
VO German, Korean, Italian, English / ST English
THE PERFECT SQUARE, Gernot Wieland
(2024, Germany, Belgium, 8') Italian premiere
Wieland worked for twelve years with an animal trainer who taught birds to fly in circles or squares. The film examines how aesthetic norms influence our (Western) view of the world and why these norms lead to failure.
VO English / ST English
THE RETREAT, Gelare Khoshgozaran
(2023, USA, UK, France, 22′) Italian premiere
As a process based film, The Retreat delves into the temporal, spatial and relational effects migratory movements have on the body and mind of the exile.
VO English, Arabic, French, Spanish / ST English
VIÊT AND NAM, Trương Minh Quý
(2024, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, France, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, USA, 129') Italian premiere
Film presented in the "Un Certain Regard" selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2024
Before leaving Vietnam in a container alongside future migrants, Nam, a young miner, seeks to find the remains of his father, a soldier killed during the civil war. But Nam’s lover, Viet, wishes they could stay forever in the depths of the coal mine.
VO Vietnamese / ST English
BRAGUINO, Clément Cogitore and ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES, Ben Rivers
Carte blanche by Clément Cogitore BRAGUINO, (2017, France, Finland, 50')
Braguino is a filmic journey in search of an “impossible community”, recluse in the heart of the Siberian forest. The fear of wild animals and fire as well as the joy offered by the immensity of the forest and its resources, make children and adults try their best to live together.
VO Russian / ST English ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES, (2008, United Kingdom, 16')
The film is the portrait of S., who made the choice of living in isolation from society. Alone in his garden, asurrounded by his machines, he wonders about life on Earth, from the origin of the world to an uncertain future.
VO English / Non subtitled
HEART OF A DOG, Laurie Anderson and MON FARDEAU, Niki Lindroth von Bahr
Carte blanche by Vimala Pons HEART OF A DOG, (2015, USA, France, 75')
Lolabelle, dead in 2011, was the dog of American experimental artist and musician Laurie Anderson. A film-essay, a patchwork cinema blending childhood memories, bedside notes, home movies, daydreams and tributes to those who inspired the artist-director.
VO English / ST Italian MON FARDEAU, (2017, Sweden, 14')
In a modern marketplace beside a large freeway, a dark musical unfolds. Employees, portrayed as animals, deal with boredom and existential anxiety through cheerful musical performances. The apocalypse appears as a tempting liberator.
VO ST English
BEFORE THE DAY STARTS, Ali Essafi
Carte blanche by Rasha Salti
Avant le déclin du jour is an archive film project that uncovers the artistic creativity of Morocco's 70s sustained by victims' storytellings from this period's repression known as "Years of Lead".
VO Arabic, French / ST French
GALB'ECHAOUF, Abdessamad El Montassir, BORJ EL MECHKOUK, Driss Aroussi, APIYEMIYEKÎ, Ana Vaz
Contrechamp GALB'ECHAOUF, (2021, Morocco, 19')
While investigating an event that profoundly changed the landscape of the Sahara, Abdessamad El Montassir is confronted with the silence of previous generations, who remain haunted by a story they are unable to tell.
VO Arabic Hassanya, Darija / ST English BORJ EL MECHKOUK, (2023, France, Morocco, 32')
Through the work of a man on the underground water galleries used to irrigate crops in the desert region of Errachidia, in Morocco, emerges a cinematic fable about the climate crisis.
VO Moroccan Arabic dialect / ST English APIYEMIYEKÎ? (2019, Brazil, France, 29')
Apiyemiyekî? is a portrait based on the archive of Brazilian philosopher and activist Egydio Schwade, counting over 3000 drawings made by the Waimiri-Atroari, a native Amazonian community, during the era of literacy in Brazil.
VO Portuguese / ST English
ÊTRE CHEVAL, Jérôme Printemps Clément-Wilz and UN PASSAGE D'EAU, Clovis Maillet & Louise Hervé
Contrechamp ÊTRE CHEVAL, (2015, France, 63')
Karen is a fan of pony-play, a practice of transforming oneself into a horse and being trained as one. Through her quest, Karen questions humanity itself, gender differences, and explores life, love and nature.
VO French / ST English UN PASSAGE D'EAU, (2014, France, 23')
Some sea creatures, such as lobsters, seem to be immortal. Maybe, in the future, humans would able to transform themselves instead of growing old? A hypothesis that's haunting a group of retired people at a seaside resort...
VO French / ST English
WORLD/ANTIWORLD: ON SEEING DOUBLE, Haig Aivazian
Contrechamp
(2024, Lebanon, 30')
Performed lecture.
VO English / No subtitles
Interview with Alice Rohrwacher and JR.
BORJ EL MECHKOUK, Driss Aroussi (2023, France, Morocco, 32')
Through the work of a man on the underground water galleries used to irrigate crops in the desert region of Errachidia, in Morocco, emerges a cinematic fable about the climate crisis.
VO Moroccan Arabic dialect / ST English
CITIZEN ALLEGORY, Alice Rohrwacher and JR
(2024, France, 21′)
Roman premiere
Presented at the Venice Biennale 2024
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato wonders: what would happen if one of the prisoners managed to free themselves from their chains and escape from the cave? What if that prisoner were Jay, a little 7-year-old boy ?
VO French / ST Italian
This film is shown before Boris Lojkine's L'HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE.
THE STORY OF SOULEYMANE, Boris Lojkine
(2024, France, 93′)
Italian Premiere Best Actor - Un Certain Regard, Prix du Jury - Un Certain Regard Festival de Cannes 2024
While cycling through the streets of Paris to deliver meals, Souleymane keeps rehearsing his story. In two days, he has his asylum interview, the key to obtaining his papers. But Souleymane is not ready.
VO French / ST Italian
This film will be screened after ALLÉGORIE CITADINE by Alice Rohrwacher and JR.
PARIS, TEXAS, Wim Wenders
(1984, West Germany, France, 146′)
Roman premiere of the restored version
"Film Culte"
After four years of being missing, Travis emerges from the desert back into his brother Walt's life, who thought he was dead and has been raising his son, Hunter. Travis tries to reclaim his past and sets off to Texas to find his wife, Jane.
VO English / ST Italian
CLOUD, Kyoshi Kuorosawa
(2024, Japan, 123′)
Roman premiere
Presented at the Venice Biennale 2024
Ryosuke Yoshii is an ordinary man who makes a living by selling things online. Gradually, he draws the resentment of those around him and will have to fight for his life.
VO Japanese / ST Italian
EAT THE NIGHT, Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel
(2024, France, 107′)
Italian premiere
Presented at Directors' Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2024 Special mention at Carbourg Film Festival 2024
Jury Prize and Student Jury Prize at Festival Nouvelles Vagues de Biarritz
Critics' Prize and Best Director Prize at Festival des Champs-Élysées
Pablo and his sister Apolline share a deep bond over the video game Darknoon. When Pablo falls for Night, whom he introduces to his small-time dealings, he distances himself from Apolline. As the game nears its end, his choices anger a rival gang...
VO French / ST English
MARIA MONTESSORI - THE NEW WOMAN, Léa Todorov
(2024, France, Italy, 99′)
Italian premiere
In 1900 in Rome, Lili d'Alengy meets Maria Montessori, a doctor who is developing a revolutionary learning method for children then referred to as 'deficient.' As the paths of these two women cross, they will make History.
MARIA MONTESSORI - LA NOUVELLE FEMME, Léa Todorov, (2024, 99′)
VO French, Italian / ST Italian
Prize list
The jury awarded two prizes: the Prix Villa Médicis for Best Film and the Prix du Jury for a singular film that caught the jurors’ attention. These prizes, worth 5,000 euros and 3,000 euros respectively, also offer filmmakers the opportunity of a residency at the Villa Médicis. The jury also awarded two special mentions.
BEST FILM AWARD: PEPE by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias
"For its originality, its inventiveness, its ability to surprise us, to lose us and then to find us again, for its incredible freedom that has moved us as much as it has stunned us, the jury awards the Villa Médicis Prize for Best Film to Pepe, by Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias."
The 2024 Jury
JURY PRIZE: REAL by Adele Tulli
"Because this film, like all great works, leaves us with more questions than answers, the Jury Prize goes to Real by Adele Tulli."
The 2024 Jury
SPECIAL MENTION: FAMILIAR TOUCH by Sarah Friedland
"For the striking precision of its directorial talent and its captivating presence, the jury awards a special mention to director Sarah Friedland and actress Kathleen Chalfant for the film Familiar Touch."
The 2024 jury
SPECIAL MENTION: MAN NUMBER 4 by Miranda Pennell
"For her ingenious transformation of 'proof images' into sites of reflection and empathy, for her restorative poetry, the jury awards a special mention to Miranda Pennell for her short film Man Number 4."
The 2024 jury
Clément Cogitore
Clément Cogitore is a French artist and filmmaker, trained at the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg and Le Fresnoy.
Awarded several prizes, including the Grand prix du Salon de Montrouge in 2011 and the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2018, he was also a resident at the Académie de France in Rome in 2012. In 2015, his first feature film Ni le Ciel, Ni la Terre won an award at Cannes and was nominated for the César for Best First Film. His work for the opera Les Indes galantes in 2019 has been widely acclaimed. In 2022, his second feature Goutte d'Or won an award and was shortlisted to represent France at the Oscars. Since 2018, he has been a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Vimala Pons
Vimala Pons is a circus artist and actress. After studying art history at Paris 4 and film history at Paris 8, she continued her training at the Cours Florent, the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique de Paris (CNSAD), and the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC). Since 2013, Vimala Pons has distinguished herself in independent and auteur cinema, collaborating with such renowned directors as Antonin Peretjatko, Bertrand Mandico, Christophe Honoré, Jacques Rivette, and Alain Resnais. In 2023, she played in Stephan Castang's Vincent doit mourir, and will appear in Baya Kasmi's Mikado, Victor Rodenbach's Le Beau Rôle, and Alejandro Jodorowsky's Le Voyage essentiel.
Rasha Salti
Rasha Salti is a researcher, writer and curator of art and cinema. She has co-curated several film programs, including Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema from the 1960s until Now (MoMA, New York), and Saving Bruce Lee: African and Arab Cinema in the Era of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin). She is currently commissioned editor for La Lucarne, Arte France's experimental documentary program. Rasha Salti also co-curated the exhibition Past Disquiet with Kristine Khouri. In 2022, Salti was one of the co-curators of the 8th Triennial of Photography in Hamburg, and a member of the curatorial committee for the 12th Berlin Biennale.
The team
The selection committee
Each year, a selection committee is appointed to choose the films in competition, taking the most open approach possible to the diversity of practices and authors, whether filmmakers, visual artists or visual artists.
For the 2024 edition of the festival, the selection committee is made up of :
Lili Hinstin is a festival programmer and artistic director. In charge of cinema at the Villa Médicis between 2005 and 2009, she became programmer for the Cinéma du Réel festival from 2010 to 2013. Lili Hinstin then became artistic director of the Belfort Film Festival (2013-2018), then of the Locarno International Film Festival (2018-2020). She is currently Program Director of the Festival International de Biarritz – Nouvelles Vagues.
Julian Ross is an Amsterdam-based researcher, curator and writer. He is co-programmer of Doc Fortnight 2024 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and co-programmer of the 69th Flaherty Seminar. He is adjunct professor at the Centre for the Arts in Society at Leiden University, where he co-directs the interdisciplinary research center ReCNTR. He joined the selection committee of the Villa Médicis Film Festival in 2024.
Valentine Umansky is a curator and author. She has worked for several years with institutions dedicated to the visual arts and is currently based at Tate Modern in London. Between 2015 and 2020, she held positions in the United States at the International Center of Photography, the Museum of Modern Art and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati.
For many years, Jean-Marc Zekri has been the director of the Reflet Médicis art-house cinema in Paris, where he organizes numerous screenings of repertory films, often never before seen, and films from emerging cinematographies. He is also a member of the board of the endowment fund of the Parisian cinema association La Clef. He has been a member of the Quinzaine des Cinéastes selection committee since 2023 and joined the Villa Médicis Film Festival selection committee in 2024.
The organizing committee
The organizing committee of the Villa Medici Film Festival is composed of :
Albane Dumas is coordinator of the Villa Médicis Film Festival
Lili Hinstin is a festival programmer and artistic director. In charge of cinema at Villa Médicis between 2005 and 2009, she became programmer for the Cinéma du Réel festival from 2010 to 2013. Lili Hinstin then became artistic director of the Belfort Film Festival (2013-2018), then of the Locarno International Film Festival (2018-2020). She is currently Program Director of the Biarritz International Film Festival – Nouvelles Vagues.
Laurent Perreau is a writer and director for cinema and television, and also stages images for the Rencontres d’Arles.
Sam Stourdzé specializes in images and the relationship between art, photography and cinema. He has curated numerous exhibitions and written several reference works. Since 2020, he has been director of the Académie de France in Rome – Villa Médicis.
Véronique Terrier Hermann is a teacher and research program manager (Beaux-arts de Nantes, Institut pour la photographie, Lille). Her publications include Jeux sérieux, cinéma et art contemporains transforment l’essai, Head/Mamco, 2015.
With the kind collaboration of Mathilde Henrot for Piazzale programming.
Our partners
Partners of the Villa Medici Film Festival 2024
principal partner
partners
media partners
with the support of
Photo credits
Image È a questo punto che nasce il bisogno di fare storia, Constanze Rhum
Image A Fidai Film : © Kamal Aljafari Productions
Image Boomerang : © Maider Fortune
Image DAU:AÑCUT (MOVING ALONG IMAGE) : © Adam Piron
Image E a questo punto che nasce il bisogno di fare storia : © Constanze Ruhm
Image Familiar Touch : © Sarah Friedland
Image How Love Moves : © Pallavi Paul
Image Man Number 4 : © Miranda Pennel
Image Pablito : © Monte y Culebra
Image Real : © Locarno FF, Adele Tulli
Image The Perfect Square : © Gernot Wieland
Image The Retreat © Gelare Khoshgozaran
Image Braguino : © Clément Cogitore
Image Origin of the species : © Ben Rivers
Image Avant le déclin du jour © Ali Essafi
Image Heart of a dog © Laurie Anderson
Image Mon Fardeau © New Europe Film Sales
Image APIYEMIYEKÎ? © Ana Vaz
Image BORJ EL MECHKOUK © Driss Aroussi
Image GALB’ECHAOUF © Abdessamad El Montassir
Image Être Cheval © Jérôme Clément-Wilz
Image Un passage d’acqua © redshoes & I. I. I. I.
Image WORLD/ANTIWORLD: ON SEEING DOUBLE © Haig Aivazian
Image Allégorie citadine © Alice Rohrwacher et JR
Image L’histoire de Souleymane © Boris Lojkine
Image Paris, Texas © Wim Wenders
Image Cloud © Kyoshi Kuorosawa
Image Eat The Night © Caroline Poggi et Jonathan Vinel
Image Maria – Montessori, La Nouvelle Femme © Léa Todorov
Portrait de Clément Cogitore © Kenza Wadimoff
Portrait de Vimala Pons © Rainer Erain
Portrait de Rasha Salti © Christoph Terhechte
Portrait de Lili Hinstin © Lucile Delzenne
Portrait de Julian Ross © Merel Hegenbart Photography
Portrait de Valentine Umansky © African Artists Foundation (AAF)
Portrait de Jean-Marc Zekri © Jean-Marc Zekri
Festival Film © Margherita Nuti e Gori Claudia
Previous editions
2022
2023