Visions du Réel 24

Over CHF 100,000 of prizes were distributed to sixteen winning projects during the 2024 Visions du Réel Industry Awards Ceremony. The project The Last Days of the Hospital won the Eurimages Co-production Development Award (€20,000) while the Special Eurimages Co-production Development Award (€20,000) was handed to the Ukrainian project Fixing the War. The visions sud est award went to Hanz Rippe Gabriel, for their project The Shadow of Yolüja. All awards...

Mother Vera, which world-premieres in Nyon, follows the eponymous protagonist, a charismatic former heroic addict who had lived in an Orthodox monastery in Belarus for 20 years. “I felt very drawn to her quest,” co-director Embleton reflects on her subject. “She wants to experience all of life, and yet she was in this monastery.”

Swiss Films’ Doc topper Charlotte Ducos discusses the six projects nearing completion that have been selected for the SWISS FILMS Previews showcase of April 17. Most of the projects are just about ready to be launched onto the festival circuit. “I think we have a great diversity of storytelling and of background and among the six projects we have three women directors and three women producers. That's important for us,” Ducos underlines to Business Doc Europe.

For its 55th edition, running 12 to 21 April 2024, Visions du Réel will welcome leading French director Alice Diop to its Atelier, which will entail an April 13 masterclass and a complete retrospective of her films. “[Diop’s] aim is to question French society from the margins, and she has distinguished herself due to her determination to give substance to unique journeys, exploring the personal to access the universal,” the festival writes.

Marcos Simon Mossello & Elias Ezequiel Gismondi set out to investigate the business of being bald, together with the residents of Tostado, an Argentinian town where hair seems to be largely absent among the men folk. “The idea for the film came to us from baldness itself, we believe that personal experiences are what take you to a place that gives you the possibility of telling something authentic, with substance, whether in a documentary or fiction,” the pair tell BDE.

The Ocean Viking has often been in the news in recent years. It is the ship chartered by humanitarian organisation SOS Méditerranée to rescue migrants fleeing by sea from Libya. It has been impounded, harassed by Libyan coast guard vessels and criticised by European politicians - but it has saved countless lives. Jean-Baptiste Bonnet talks to BDE about his new film for which he followed the ship for six weeks.

On April 15 Visions du Réel awarded the 2024 Prix d’honneur to Chinese director Jia Zhang-Ke. French filmmaker Claire Denis, Guest of Honour at the Festival in 2020, paid tribute to him while the prize itself was awarded by Carlo Chatrian, International Feature Film Competition Jury member and former Artistic Director of the Berlinale.

A total of 29 new projects have been selected to participate 14-17 April across Visions du Réel Industry’s four pitch events this year. 15 projects in development are selected for VdR–Pitching, and six projects in finishing stages will be presented at the VdR–Work In Progress pitch. Four projects have been selected within both the VdR–Rough Cut Lab and the VdR–Development Lab respectively.

We Are Inside, which world-premiered in Nyon, explores the father-daughter relationship between poet Mustapha and his filmmaker daughter Farah Kassem in all its complexity. As she tells Business Doc Europe, director Kassem wanted “to create situations where both our mediums could meet, my camera and his poetry.”

In Apple Cider Vinegar by Sofie Benoot, which world-premiered at VdR 2024, a kidney stone is the unusual prompt for a narrative that reflects on the often imperceptible connections between life and nature. It is a unique and almost unquantifiable film, but also an engaging and intriguing one.