04/10/2024 - The festival’s 46th edition will unspool in Montpellier between 18 and 26 October, with 200 titles gracing the agenda, including eight fiction feature films battling it out for the Antigone d'Or

The Time It Takes [+see also:
film review
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interview: Francesca Comencini
film profile] by Italy’s Francesca Comencini and The Mohican [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Frédéric Farrucci
film profile] by French director Frédéric Farrucci are two films recently well-received in Venice which are set to open and close the 46th Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival (running 18 – 26 October), respectively. As per usual, Cinemed (which attracted 62,000 viewers last year) is set to unfurl an incredibly generous programme consisting of approximately 200 titles which illustrate the full diversity and dynamism of the 7th art from across the entire Mediterranean basin. Included within the event are tributes to and in the presence of Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher (across 13 films), French actor-turned-director Reda Kateb (across 12 films, including his first directorial effort Sur un fil [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen (across six films and one episode from a series).

In the first instance, eight fiction feature films will be duking it out for the 2024 Antigone d'Or: Vermiglio, The Mountain Bride [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maura Delpero
film profile] by Italy’s Maura Delpero (awarded the Grand Prize in Venice and her country’s candidate for the 2025 Best International Film Oscar), The Wailing [+see also:
film review
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interview: Pedro Martín-Calero, Isabel…
film profile] by Spain’s Pedro Martín-Calero (recently awarded the Best Director trophy in San Sebastián), Meat [+see also:
film review
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interview: Dimitris Nakos
film profile] by Greek director Dimitris Nakos (screened in Toronto Discovery), To A Land Unknown [+see also:
film review
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interview: Mahdi Fleifel
film profile] by the Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel (discovered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight), The Virgin and Child [+see also:
film review
film profile] by the Belgian director of Kurdish origin Binevsa Berivan, Aïcha [+see also:
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film profile] by Tunisia’s Mehdi M. Barsaoui (unveiled in Venice’s Orizzonti line-up), Panopticon [+see also:
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interview: George Sikharulidze
film profile] by Georgia’s George Sikharulidze (well-received in competition in Karlovy Vary) and Life by Turkey’s Zeki Demirkubuz.

In the running for the Audience Award, meanwhile, are seven feature films selected for the Panorama section: the documentaries The Brink of Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir
film profile] by Egypt’s Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir (discovered in Critics’ Week), The Words Women Spoke One Day by French filmmaker Raphaël Pillosio (triumphant in the Cinéma du Réel Festival) and Diaries from Lebanon [+see also:
film review
interview: Myriam El Hajj
film profile] by Lebanese director Myriam El Hajj (unveiled in the Berlinale’s Panorama line-up), and the fiction films Little Loves [+see also:
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film profile] by Spain’s Celia Rico Clavellino (rewarded in Malaga), Red Path [+see also:
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film profile] by French-Tunisian director Lotfi Achour (screened in Locarno’s Cinéastes du Présent line-up), Le Lac bleu by Morocco’s Daoud Aoulad-Syad, and Fidan by Turkey’s Aycil Yeltan.

The Documentaries Competition is set to pit eight titles against one another: Green Line [+see also:
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film profile] by Sylvie Ballyot (crowned Best First Film in Locarno), Le boxeur chancelant by France’s Lo Thivolle, Belgian production The Roller, the Life, the Fight [+see also:
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film profile] by Italy’s Elettra Bisogno and Palestine’s Hazem Alqaddi, (Y)our Mother [+see also:
film review
interview: Samira El Mouzghibati
film profile] by Belgian-Moroccan filmmaker Samira El Mouzghibati, Blueberry Dreams by Georgia’s Elena Mikaberidze, 1489 [+see also:
film review
interview: Shoghakat Vardanyan
film profile] by Armenia’s Shoghakat Vardanyan, Les Signes de vie (Segnali di vita) by Italy’s Leandro Picarella, and La Guêpe et l’Orchidée by Tunisia’s Saber Zammouri.

Countless premieres (almost all in the presence of their directors) are primed and ready to round off the Cinemed line-up, including films hailing directly from San Sebastián’s competition (such as Spanish director Albert Serra’s documentary Afternoons of Solitude [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albert Serra
film profile], which scooped the Golden Shell for Best Film, and Costa Gavras’ Last Breath [+see also:
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interview: Costa-Gavras
film profile]) and Robert Guédiguian’s Stealing Angel.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a focus on "the audacity of young Moroccan cinema", a Luigi Comencini retrospective in 23 films, special screenings (one of which dedicated to Yannick Kergoat’s documentary series Le siècle de Costa Gavras), a short films overview and competition, a masterclass by Nicolas Seydoux (Gaumont), screenings dedicated to younger audiences, a "night in hell" (in five films) and, between 22 and 24 October, the professional Cinemed Meetings sidebar, on which Cineuropa will shed more light at a later date.

(Translated from French)