interview with Dimitra Karya, artistic director for Cinéfondation There are many movers and shakers in the short film industry worldwide, but Dimitra Karya is definitely one of the most important personalities in the world of film. She decides about who is getting into the Selection of Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival, probably watches more student films than anybody else and can help in kicking off a career in the film business.
What is the brief history and the main objective of Cinéfondation? How does it fit into the Festival de Cannes programme? The Cinéfondation was created by Gilles Jacob in 1998 to discover talented young filmmakers right from the very beginning of their career: every year, we select about fifteen student films submitted by cinema schools all over the world. The four Cinéfondation programs, approximately 90 minutes each, are part of the Official selection of the Festival de Cannes and are screened in the Buñuel Theatre (this year on May 18, 19 and 20). The Cinéfondation and short films Jury, presided by Michel Gondry, will award three prizes (15,000€, 11,250€ and 7,500€). Apart from the Selection, you have The Atelier and your Residence programme. What is the connection between these sections? The three actions of the Cinéfondation are independent and complementary: The Selection, which I program, highlights school films that deserve international recognition. The Residence, created in 2000, welcomes a dozen young filmmakers in Paris every year, accompanying the writing of their first or second feature screenplay for four and a half months. The Atelier, founded in 2005 as the latest step in the Cinéfondation experience, selects fifteen feature film projects every year, invites the directors to the Festival de Cannes and puts them in contact with potential co-producers to speed up the production process. In theory, the same filmmaker could join the Selection with his school film, come to a Residence session for his feature project, and then be invited to the Atelier for another project, but since there is no automatic link between the three Cinéfondation departments, the postman does not ring twice that often. Georges Goldenstern, the General Manager of the Cinéfondation, selects the projects for the Residence (with the help of a jury) and the Atelier.
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How does the selection procedure look like? How many films do you get yearly? Who is responsible for the selection? Every year around 1,600 school films, up to 60 minutes, fiction or animation, are submitted to the Cinéfondation, before February 15th. Unfortunately, most of them, even those finished months before, arrive at the office just at the deadline, which means that hundreds of them must be seen within a month or so. As the director of the Selection, in charge of viewing all those films, I’d like to convey a message: it is highly recommended to send a film as early as possible, so that it can be seen in better, less stressful conditions, which is beneficial to all parts for obvious reasons.