Will the future Palmes d'Or be at the 1st International Film School Festival, which is taking place in Cannes until Tuesday?

Waiting for tomorrow... While the 78th Film Festival will open on Tuesday, May 13, we've gotten a bit ahead of ourselves at the Espace Miramar, the venue for the 1st International Film Festival of Film Schools. A "FIFEC" that, since Sunday and again today, has been showcasing the creations of young talents from the schools (as its name suggests...), in every sense of the word. Thus, to close this inaugural edition, the works of students from the Méliès campus, the ESRA, and the BTS Audiovisuel de Carnot will be screened this evening, starting at 6:30 p.m.

But yesterday, ahead of the screening of the selected films at the Poitiers Film Festival – a partner of the event, alongside the City and the French National Commission for UNESCO – the central theme of these three days, it was the students from Cannes schools who were in the spotlight. As part of the 100% EAC [artistic and cultural education] program, the young people made a series of short films, shown at Miramar. "They spent an afternoon with a speaker from Cannes Cinéma, who taught them the technique of "stop motion" [step-by-step animation] ," explains Stéphane Rondelli, a CM2 teacher at the Saint-Exupéry school.

Three Cannes establishments soon to be entered into the UNESCO competition

"We shot sequences of the film in small groups. We really enjoyed discovering how to animate images, how to make a film. We realized that it's not easy," assure Nayla, Mouhssina, Lina, and Alexandre. So, watching their short film in black and white on the big screen only makes them more "proud" of the work accomplished together. In line with the 100% EAC objective: "Creating connections, because culture brings people together," reiterates the mayor, David Lisnard, who did not fail to congratulate the young people – "You are the future creators; some already are" – before reminding us that "great directors often start with short films." So, you never know: maybe future Palmes d'Or winners were hiding in the Miramar space yesterday...

The kids then watched the short films from the "When Sound Creates the Image" competition organized by UNESCO. A single musical theme—composed by Thomas Dutronc—featured around twenty creations from Estonia, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, and more . There were no local films on the program, but that's about to change, as Maud Boissac, the city's director of cultural affairs, announced that "the Mont-Chevalier and Bocca-Frayère schools, as well as the Gérard-Philipe middle school, are joining the UNESCO network and will be able to participate in the competition in the future."

International Film Festival of Film Schools, today at Espace Miramar (35, rue Pasteur). Free admission. At 10 a.m., screening of "Toto" and Critics' Week masterclass with Grégory Coutaut; at 2:30 p.m., screening of films from the Poitiers Film Festival; at 6:30 p.m., screening of films made by Cannes students.