At a festival where everyone was told to avoid political statements, the juries made their views loud and clear by choosing films to award with their activists caps on.
Read MoreJafar Panahi, after his Palme d’Or win for It Was Just an Accident
The announcement of the Film Fund at the Palestinian Pavilion in Cannes, photo © Hamza Hamida
PFI launches Film Fund to support Palestinians, plus more Palestinian news from Cannes
While the festival’s official stance may have been to avoid controversy and politics at all cost, or at the cost of the Palestinian people, there were a few cinematic organizations doing right by them on the Croisette. And the presence of a Palestinian Pavilion in the Marché du Film, with their just-announced Film Fund, brought well-deserved attention to their cause.
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A still from ‘Rosso: a true lie about a fisherman’ by Antonio Messana
Watching the short end: The Ca 'Foscari Short Film Festival is the other Venice film festival
Most directors whose features you are watching in cinemas today started out making short films. It’s a fact that short narratives and documentaries are the stuff future filmmaker build their craft on and the Ca 'Foscari Short Film Festival recognizes that through and through. In their press release for the upcoming ninth edition of the event, which will run from March 20th to the 23rd, the following statement made me realize just how much they believe in the learning power of the ‘Short”.
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