After a 2021 edition entirely online, this 14th edition of the festival, that we were all waiting, reinvests the dark rooms, for our more great pleasure ! On the program: 5 days of festivities, 10 venues, 44 films in competition including numerous Marseille previews, 3 professional juries, 5 prizes, 9 student films from Aix-Marseille University, 17 workshop films produced by our association between 2021 and 2023 in Marseille, 3 special out-of-competition sessions, 4 school sessions, 30 guests, 10 countries represented, 7 off-site programs in the region from January 2024.
We are thus pursuing the ambition of our festival, which is to offer a unique setting where the worlds of cinematographic creation and those of scientific research meet, inviting a large audience to come discover contemporary film writing from all countries, and participate in discussions with our guests.
In these troubled times where all complexity tends to be denied, leaving room in the media field with monolithic thoughts accepting no contradiction, we are more than ever convinced of the need to create bridges between disciplines that are too often compartmentalized, not to reduce the debate to a group of specialists, but to signify that the only path that can make us hope, not for a bright tomorrow, but for a livable world, is one where we are able to share collectively, both what brings us together, and what separates us.
It is a demanding path, which requires us to stop, to take the time of reflection, which precedes action. This is the time it takes, among others, cinema artists and researchers from all disciplines, who patiently develop hypotheses, with the humility that this work requires, having no answer in advance, seeking but not finding, then finding something, sometimes resulting in a publication, or a film, therefore shared. Alone on this path but surrounded, because constantly in conversation with their peers, present or past.
We thus believe in this fertile dialogue where artistic imagination rubs shoulders scientific rigor, and vice versa. Both indeed contribute to the expansion of knowledge, by their own means, pursuing distinct objectives but which can enrich each other, because of their differences. And it is obvious that everyone, no only can, but must take part in this dialogue, to open the field of possible and allow improbable encounters sparking collaborations unexpected, to move forward, collectively.
And what more emblematic place for this than a cinema?
Also, we invite you to come and discover films that provide perspectives on the world, and to participate in debates, exploring these intersections between science and cinema, and many other things.
Looking forward to seeing you again, we wish you a very happy festival!
Serge Dentin,
Artistic Director
Original festival brochure (in french) - PDF
