International Festival Signs of the Night - Paris
Festival internatinal Signes de nuit - Paris
 

22e Festival international Signes de Nuit - Paris / 4-13 Octobre 2024
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MAIN AWARD



Cuarto de hora

 

Sebastian Arancibia
Chile / 2022 / 0:15:00


Alex (25), is a young Haitian man living in Chile who is undocumented and does not speak Spanish. After a car accident he is helped and translated by Daniela (50), a passerby with whom he is going to live what could be his last 15 minutes of life.



 

Jury Declaration:

Like a punch, we’re immediately caught by the first picture which takes us into a decisive instant of the protagonist’s life. The camera movement brings together two characters, united by the urgency of the moment. The shock doesn’t allow you to look away, no escape, no other possibility but to be confronted with the need to stick to life and the human duty to assist. In this immersive ‘cuarto de hora’ we witness strongly believable characters and well-written dialogues. Acting, camera movement and sound are carefully placed, everything converges, all in the right place at the right time.





SIGNS AWARD


The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way




Very Gentil Work

 

Nate Lavey
United States / 2024 / 0:23:00


In this film that combines documentary, fiction and essay, a man relates, in methodical voice-over, an alternative map of Manhattan based around acts of revolutionary violence that have taken place there. Very Gentle Work’s penchant for topography and archive is reminiscent of Sebald’s literature.




 

 

Jury Declaration:

Does a moral imperative of violent revolution and revenge, fighting injustice exist? This semi-documentary short movie bringing up this provoking political question, shows peaceful, melancholy city stills of nocturnal Lower Manhattan and scenes of historical bomb attacks. By cleverly juxtaposing these different images the viewer is compelled - in a very gentle way - to find his own view.

 



NIGHT AWARD


The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving



Lick a Wound

Les animaux vont mieux

Nathan Ghali
France / 2024 / 0:25:00


A mysterious community of animals has chosen to live self-sufficiently and separated from the humans. Engaging in various rituals in the basement of a church, they remember their existence as pets, mourn the deceased and develop fantasies of omnipotence and revenge. A reckoning in the form of a hyper-realistic computer animation.




 

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Jury Declaration:

...for its playful, aesthetic, humorous and unsettling way of reflecting on loss, vengeance, community and survival in a dystopian world, using craft-fully manufactured realistic animation as a means of playing with and undermining the viewers’ expectations and a subtle, yet incredibly powerful soundtrack to create and underline a dark, unconscious feeling of loneliness.




EDWARD SNOWDEN AWARD


The Edward Snowden Award honors films, which offer sensitive (mostly) unknown information, facts and phenomena of eminent importance, for which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future

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The Night Inside

La Noche Dentro

Antonio Cuesta
Spain / 2023 / 0:23:54


Belén, a young nurse, wakes up after being attacked. She is accused of ending the life of a child after giving him medicine. But she claims she injected the right medication and that she can prove it.

PARIS PREMIERE


 

Jury Declaration:

...for dragging us head first into an oppressive and personal drama about responsibility, guilt, fear and the failings of a medical system. Shot in confined spaces as to add to the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in a situation you cannot come out of and using the camera and music to enhance the almost unbearable tension of not being able to foresee the consequences of a human mistake.



JURY AWARD



Slow Down The Fall

 

Camille Tricaud, Franziska Unger
Germany / 2023 / 0:19:52


In the light of the Alps, a great ski-jumping hill flashes metallically. Two ski jumpers synchronously rehearse movements in the valley, answer generic questions in front of a green screen and pose on the hill while being watched by a film crew. It is the first reunion for the two athletes since their separation.



 

Jury Declaration:

"Slow Down the Fall" unmasks the hypocritical world of the professional sports circus that pretends to hold the absolute truth but in fact condemns athletes to be slaves of victory. The film shows us, in intense and highly aesthetical audio-visuals, a cosmos where failing is no option and emotionality dies.



SPECIAL MENTION



Puffling

 

Jessica Bishopp
United Kingdom, England, USA, Iceland / 2023 / 0:20.21


On a remote Icelandic island, teenagers Birta and Selma trade late night parties for nocturnal puffin rescues in this coming-of-age story for young adults and puffins alike.

 


Jury Declaration:

Simultaneously challenging the stereotypes of fiction, documentary and adolescence, Puffling brings us on a hopeful attempt to repair and take power into our own hands. With an initial mysterious touch we are invited to embrace a healthy degree of ingenuity, which may help us dream of a better future, if at least we are willing to grab what's within our reach. Delicately shot, sensitive and stripped of arrogance, revealing a strong will to change and the urge to rescue by a new generation.




SPECIAL MENTION



On the 8th Day

Au 8ème jour

Théo Duhautois, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Agathe Senechal, Flavie Carin
France / 2023 / 0:08:09


It took seven days to create the world, it only took one to disrupt its balance.

 


Jury Declaration:

Through delicate, pastel colours and beautifully animated strings, we plunge into diverse, peaceful and paradisiacal landscapes. Resembling a nervous and accelerated heartbeat, the music soundtrack rises, foreshadowing the disaster that we see gradually unfolding: the unstoppable darkness of human interference. An animated premonition created with an original technique by its symbolic use of the thread.




MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD


The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way



Patres

 

Saverio Tavano
Italy / 2023 / 0:14:20


Gianluca, blind since birth, has to face the hard fact that his devoted father, a poor fisherman, crossed to the dark side of the law in order to support him and has since fled to Santo Domingo. Devastated by his desertion, the boy dutifully waits by the sea, hands extended to the horizon, sensing for a sign of his return.

PARIS PREMIERE



 

 


Jury Declaration:

...for finding a new, deeply human way of telling the universal story of unconditional love between parents and children, cleverly and subtly interweaving the impactful consequences of climate change and the rise of organised crime. Through atmospheric cinematography, making full use of the power of imagination and the exceptionally strong and impressive performance by its leading, blind actor.




MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD


The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way



Oyu

 

Atsushi Hirai
France, Japan / 2023 / 0:21:31


It is the last day of the year and night falls on the small town of Toyama, Japan. A man goes to the public bath to retrieve a forgotten object. Once inside, the promise of a hot bath compels him to stay.



 

 


Jury Declaration:

We enter a warm atmosphere in the company of a silent character and stand by his side. Like him, we shall dare to let ourselves fall into comforting hot waters and take part in a community. Oyu is a journey through sorrow and healing, a simple yet tactful experience where, with an intimate and subtly humorous lens, one is invited to let go and surrender into grief and acceptance.




MENTION FOR THE NIGHT AWARD


The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving



The Shore

 

Eron Sheean
Netherlands / 2023 / 0:20:15


Inexplicably abandoned by his parents on a windswept, empty beach, a young boy embarks on a surreal journey through time – and a contemplation of ageing and his own mortality.

PARIS PREMIERE


 

 


Jury Declaration:

By creating a specific, artful pictorial world with its very own aesthetics and atmosphere, The Shore leads us into a surrealistic, threatening daydream, a disturbing, stirring labyrinth forcing us, together with the persuading main character, to hunt down the unknown. The sand in the hourglass of life spills down to the subconscious of memory.


MENTION FOR THE NIGHT AWARD


The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness,which keeps mind and consideration moving



The Exception of History

 

Yo-Wen Mao
Taiwan / 2023 / 0:25:07


Memory, history and nature - they are a kind of "difficult to read thoroughly" existence. With the accumulation of perceptual memories inside and outside my body as I walk, guided by the punctum of numerous connections, I have explored memory, history, and nature through the chronological and fictional constructs of images in the real world in 'The Exception of History.' This work aims to commence with the (textual) scrutiny of the visual, presenting the video record as a non-systematic database. In addition to capturing the tangible natural scenery of the area, it constructs different layers of reality by incorporating documentary archives and content linked to the region, historical figures who have passed, and individuals who have played distinctive roles in the locality. Through this, it seeks to express the indeterminate exceptional state that is difficult to define in that area.

FRENCH PREMIERE

 

 


Jury Declaration:

...for creating an compelling and immersive, highly original and associative journey through both a universal and personal perception of history and nature, organically combining animation, data and archive material, shaping a dreamlike, seemingly chaotic world, in which symbols, memories, images and people simultaneously gain and lose meaning.