Villa Medici Film Festival | 2023 Edition
The Villa Medici Film Festival returns from 13 to 17 September 2023 for its third edition!
Created in 2021, the Villa Medici Film Festival is dedicated to artists and filmmakers who explore contemporary practices of the moving image. Experimental, fictions or documentaries: it offers films that invent their own form, providing an overview of the most contemporary filmic creation.
THE PROGRAMME
The festival is divided into three sections: the International Competition, the Focus films and the Piazzale open air screenings.
- The International Competition
The festival highlights fifteen films presented in competition, of all lengths and genres (documentary, fiction, essay), made in 2022-2023 by artists and filmmakers whose works stand out for their singularity of purpose or form. The screenings of the films in competition will take place during the day, in the presence of the directors, in the Michel Piccoli cinema and in the Grand Salon of Villa Medici.
- The Focus selection
The Focus section presents films by artists out of competition, masterclasses and talks that will allow festival-goers to engage in unique explorations of the art of cinema with the judges, artists and filmmakers.
- The Piazzale open-air screenings
In parallel with the official competition films screened during the day, festival-goers will enjoy nightly open-air screenings on the Piazzale, in front of the historic façade and gardens of Villa Medici, of recent films – including many previews – but also restored classics of cinema.
THE JURY
This year, the panel is composed of three figures from the world of cinema and visual arts:
Alice Diop is a filmmaker born in 1979 in Aulnay-sous-Bois. She made her first short films in the early 2000s, in which she filmed the neighbourhood where she grew up
and the Parisian suburbs. In 2022, she directed her first feature film with Saint Omer, which won the Silver Lion for the Grand Jury Prize and the First Film Prize at the Venice
Film Festival, as well as the 2023 César for best first film. The film was also selected to represent France at the 2023 Oscars and was screened at the Villa Medici Film Festival in 2022.
Cyprien Gaillard is an artist, born in 1980 in Paris. He lives and works in Berlin. He has received numerous awards such as the Best Experimental Short Film Award of the Melbourne
International Film Festival (2016) and the Marcel Duchamp Prize (2010). His work, taking the form of sculptures, videos, prints, photographs and interventions in public spaces, has been exhibited in numerous venues including: Palais de Tokyo et Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2022), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2021), MoMA PS1, New York (2013).
Chiara Parisi is an art historian, born in Rome. She has been director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz since December 2019. From 2004 to 2011, she was director of the Centre international d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière, then for five years of the Monnaie de Paris.
At the end of the festival week, two prizes will be awarded by the judges during a closing evening that brings audience and artists together: the Villa Medici Prize for best film and the Jury Prize for a film that has caught the judges’ attention. The winning filmmakers will be offered the opportunity of a residency at Villa Medici.
PRIZE WINNERS
VILLA MEDICI PRIZE FOR BEST FILM
MON PIRE ENNEMI (2023) by Mehran Tamadon
Presented for its Italian premiere at the festival, MON PIRE ENNEMI has won the Villa Medici Prize for Best Film. Born in Tehran, Mehran Tamadon decided to devote himself to directing after studying architecture. Mojtaba, Hamzh, Zar and others have undergone ideological interrogations in Iran, at different periods of their lives. To make his film, Mehran Tamadon asked them to question him, as an agent of the Islamic Republic could do. The prize of €5,000 includes a creative residency at Villa Medici.
VILLA MEDICI JURY PRIZE
EL AUGE DEL HUMANO 3 (2023) by Eduardo Williams
Presented for its Italian premiere, EL AUGE DEL HUMANO 3 (The Humane Surge 3) has won the Villa Medici Jury Prize. Born in 1987, Eduardo Williams is an Argentinian filmmaker and artist. His film tells the story of different groups of friends wandering in a rainy, windy, dark world. They spend time together, trying to get away from their depressing jobs, meandering constantly towards the mystery of new possibilities. The prize of €3,000 includes a creative residency at Villa Medici.
JURY SPECIAL MENTION
BANEL & ADAMA (2023) by Ramata-Toulaye Sy
Born in Bezons, a French-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy grew up in the Paris suburbs. Her film tells the love story of Banel and Adama, a young married couple living in a remote village in Senegal. But their perfect love is on a collision course with their community’s customs. Because in this world, there is no room for passion, let alone chaos. The award includes a creative residency at Villa Medici.
THE TEAM
The organising committee of the Villa Medici Film Festival is composed of :
Each year, a selection committee is appointed to select the films in competition:
The French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici would like to extend a special thank you to the students of NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti who contribute to the third edition of the Villa Medici Film Festival.
→ Press release of the announcement of the 2023 jury
→ Press release of the announcement of the 2023 programme
→ Press release of the announcement of the winners 2023
→ Find out more about the 2021 and 2022 editions
FESTIVAL PARTNERS
Image credits
Cover image:
Frame: still image from Reel-Unreel, Francis Alÿs
Graphic design: © Bahut Studio
Image 18.000 WORLDS: © Saodat Ismailova
Image Abattoir U.S.A.!: © Aria Dean
Image Banel & Adama: © La Chauve Souris
Image Capital: © Imane Farès Galerie
Image El auge del humano 3: © Un Puma
Image How I Became a Communist: © Declan Clarke
Image La imatge permanent: © Be For Films
Image Mast-Del: © Maryam Tafakory
Image Mon pire ennemi: © L’Atelier Documentaire Box Productions
Image Nafura: © Paul Heintz
Image Pacific Club: © Valentin Noujaïm
Image Revolution der Augen: © Friederike Pezold (Pezoldo)
Image L’amour existe : © Les films de la Pléiade
Image Vers la tendresse : © Les films du Worso
Image La voix des autres : © La Fémis
Image Cities of gold and mirrors : © Cyprien Gaillard
Image L’ordre : © POM Films
Image Ocean II Ocean : © Cyprien Gaillard
Image All-In : © Mohamed Bourouissa, ADAGP, courtesy de l’artiste et de Mennour
Image s/t/r/a/t/e/s : © Christophe Raynaud de Lage
Image Sue : © Movie Factory srl
Image Apparition : © Ismaïl Bahri
Image Orientations : © Ismaïl Bahri
Image Les mains négatives : © CJC
Image Reel/Unreel : © Ajmal Maiwandi and Francis Alÿs
Image Charlotte : © Madison Bycroft
Image Asparagus : © Estate of Suzan Pitt
Image La Maison : © Mali Arun
Portrait Leos Carrax : © David Bachar Tel-Aviv 2014
Image Strange Way of Life : © El Deseo ou © El Deseo. Iglesias Más
Image Terrestrial Verses : © Taat Films, Seven Springs Pictures, Cynefilms
Image Mauvais Sang : © Leos Carax
Image Fallen Leaves : © Sputnik
Image Reality : © Mickey Mina LLC
Image L’été dernier : © Pyramide Films
Portrait Alice Diop: © Élodie Lamachere
Portrait Cyprien Gaillard: © Albrecht Fuchs
Portrait Chiara Parisi: © Philippe Levy
Portrait Mehran Tamadon: © Margherita Nuti & Claudia Gori
Portrait Eduardo Williams: © Margherita Nuti & Claudia Gori
Portrait Ramata-Toulaye Sy: © Margherita Nuti & Claudia Gori
2022 picture : © Margherita Nuti & Daniele Molajoli