The Directors' Fortnight chief Paolo Moretti, who took over the reins in 2019, presented their 2021 selection from the Forum des Images in Paris. He called the choice programme of 24 features "a selection of discovery." And we can't agree with him more.
Half of the films this year are directed or co-directed by women including Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava; the documentary Futura from Alice Rohrwacher, Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi; and Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir: Part II starring Tilda Swinton and Richard Ayoade.
Veteran documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman will receive the Fortnight’s Carrosse d’Or honor on opening day. He will also hold a masterclass and his 2018 film Monrovia, Indiana will be screened.
The opening film is Ouistreham ("Between Two Worlds"), directed by Emmanuel Carrère, while the Fortnight will close with Our Men, directed by Rachel Lang.
MENA titles see a debut feature from Jafar Panahi's son, Panah Panahi titled Hit The Road (Jadde Khaki); The Sea Ahead, directed by Ely Dagher, whose previous work Waves '98 won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and Italian-Iraqi director Haider Rashid’s third feature Europa (Iraq-Italy-Kuwait), about a young Iraqi man trying to cross into Europe on foot and who is tracked down by Bulgarian vigilantes guarding the border.
See the complete line-up below.
Features
A Chiara by Jonas Carpignano
1h38
A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia
1h30 – First film
Ali & Ava by Clio Barnard
1h35
Clara Sola by Nathalie Álvarez Mesen
1h48 – First film
De bas étage (A Brighter Tomorrow) by Yassine Qnia
1h26 – First film
Diários de Otsoga (Journal de Tûoa, The Tsugua Diaries) by Miguel Gomes and Maureen Fazendeiro
1h41
El empleado y el patron (L’Employeur et l’Employé, The Employer and the Employee) by Manuel Nieto Zas
1h46
Entre les vagues (The Braves) by Anaïs Volpé
1h39
Europa by Haider Rashid
1h15
Futura by Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi and Alice Rohrwacher
1h45
Întregalde by Radu Muntean
1h44
Jadde khaki (Hit the Road) by Panah Panahi
1h33 – First film
Les Magnétiques (Magnetic Beats) by Vincent Maël Cardona
1h38 – First film
Luaneshat e kodrës (La Colline où rugissent les lionnes, The Hill where Lionesses Roar) by Luàna Bajrami
1h23 – First film
Medusa by Anita Rocha da Silveira
2h07
Mon légionnaire (Our Men) by Rachel Lang
1h46 – Closing film
Murina by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
1h32 – First film
Neptune Frost by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman
1h45
Ouistreham (Between Two Worlds) by Emmanuel Carrère
1h47 – Opening film
Re Granchio (La Légende du Roi Crabe, The Tale of King Crab) by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis
1h30
Retour à Reims (Fragments) – (Returning to Reims (Fragments)) by Jean-Gabriel Périot
1h23
The Souvenir Part II by Joanna Hogg
1h46
Yong an zhen gu shi ji (Ripples of Life) by Shujun Wei
2h
البحر أمامكم (Face à la mer, The Sea Ahead) by Ely Dagher
1h56 – First film
Special Screenings
The Souvenir by Joanna Hogg
2h
Short Films
Anxious Body by Yoriko Mizushiri
6 min
El Espacio sideral (The Sidereal Space) by Sebastián Schjaer
17 min
Simone est partie (Simone Is Gone) by Mathilde Chavanne
21 min
Sycorax by Lois Patiño and Matías Piñeiro
20 min
The Parents’ Room (La Chambre des parents) by Diego Marcon
11 min
The Vandal by Eddie Alcazar
15 min
The Windshield Wiper by Alberto Mielgo
14 min
Train Again by Peter Tscherkassky
20 min
When Night Meets Dawn (Quand la Nuit rencontre l’Aube) by Andreea Cristina Borțun
20 min
Carrosse d’Or
Monrovia, Indiana by Frederick Wiseman
2h15
