2023 Programme Unveiled 

The full programme and composition of the jury for the 45th Festival des 3 Continents was announced today, November 9, 2023.

The international Festival dedicated to films from Africa, Latin America, and Asia will be held in Nantes and in partner cinemas throughout the Loire-Atlantique region from November 24 to December 3, 2023.

“Beyond the attention given to contemborary cinema through the International Competition, with films by both established filmmakers and new directors, the Festival des 3 Continents explores the history of world cinema to bring it to the widest possible audience,” declares Jérôme Baron, Artistic Director of the Festival. “Without a doubt, the 2023 Festival has a feminine voice, which is equally present in the competition and the retrospectives that pay homage to Senegalese filmmaker Safi Faye and Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, and through the works of Viet Linh and Bach Diep in our anthology of Vietnamese cinema.”

Over the course of ten days bookended by two weekends, the Festival will give audiences the opportunity to discover 90 films, with 240 screenings organized in 13 cities in the Loire-Atlantique region.

The Festival will be held in the usual theatres in Nantes (Cinéma Bonne Garde, Concorde, Le Cinématographe, Gaumont, Katorza, Espace Cosmopolis, Stereolux, Angers-Nantes Opéra), as well as in the theatres of our historical partners throughout the Loire-Atlantique region, including L’Eden3 (Ancenis), Le Beaulieu (Bouguenais), Le Connétable (Clisson), Le Gén’éric (Héric), L’Atlantic (La Turballe), Le Saint Paul (Rezé), Le Lutétia (Saint Herblain) and Cinéma Jacques Tati (Saint Nazaire).

In addition, this year the Festival is expanding to include four new partner theatres: Le Hublot in Le Croisic, Ciné Toiles de Retz in Pornic, Saint Michel in Saint Michel-Chef-Chef, and Le Vaillant in Vertou.

In addition to the International Competition and Special Screenings, audiences can enjoy a host of other events including an homage to pioneer Senegalese filmmaker Safi Faye, a retrospective of prolific Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, an anthology of Vietnamese cinema covering three decades (1970-1990), blockbusters of popular Indian cinema from the 70s and 80s interpreted by superstar actor Amitabh Bachchan, and a programme on the theme of memory.

A selection of 10 French and European Premiere films:

•   The Bilbaos, directed by Pedro SPERONI, documentary (Argentina), French Premiere
•   Bride Kidnapping, directed by Mirlan ABDYKALYKOV, fiction (Kyrgyzstan), European Premiere
•   Critical Zone, directed by Ali AHMADZADEH, fiction (Iran, Germany), French Premiere
•   Deaths and Wonders, directed by Diego SOTO, fiction (Chile), French Premiere
•   Firedream, directed by José Pablo ESCAMILLA, fiction (Mexico), French Premiere
•   Fly On, directed by Takuya KATO, fiction (Japan), European Premiere
•   Rapture, directed by Dominic SANGMA, fiction (India, China, Switzerland, Qatar), French Premiere
•   The Shadowless Tower, directed by ZHANG Lu, fiction (China), French Premiere
•   Le Spectre de Boko Haram, directed by Cyrielle RAINGOU, documentary (France, Cameroon), French Premiere – First Feature Film
•   Talks Overnight, directed by SU Qiqi, fiction (Hong Kong) French Premiere–First Feature Film

The members of this year’s jury of industry professionals who will determine the winners of the Montgolfière d’Or and Montgolfière d’Argent awards and the new Distribution Funding Grant sponsored by Six Ares-Groupe AVENTIM are:

•   Agnès GODARD–Director of Photography/Cinematographer (France)
•   Laurence LASCARY–Producer (France)
•   Chloé MAZLO–Visual artist, Filmmaker, Scriptwriter, and Actor (France)
•   Para One – DJ, Composer, Producer and Director (France)

Two additional awards, the Audience Award sponsored by Magmaa Food Hall Nantes, and the Young Jury Award sponsored by Le Damier–Corporate Foundation of the Brémond Group, will also be attributed to films in the International Competition.

A selection of 13 films, including many previously unscreened works.

Opening Ceremony at the Angers Nantes Opera House

A Man, directed by Kei ISHIKAWA (Japan) will be screened as the opening film of the Festival, and a premiere.

Other Special Screenings

•   A Normal Family, directed by HUR Jin-Ho, fiction (South Korea), Premiere
•   Al Djanat, the Original Paradise, directed by Chloé Aïcha BORO, documentary (France, Burkina Faso, Benin, Germany) French Premiere
•   All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White, directed by Babatunde APALOWO, fiction (Nigeria) French Premiere – First Feature Film
•   Bugis Street, directed by YONFAN, fiction (Hong Kong) French Premiere – Restored copy
•   Coconut Head Generation, directed by Alain KASSANDA, fiction (France, Nigeria), Premiere
•   The Delinquents, directed by Rodrigo MORENO, fiction (Argentina, Luxembourg, Brazil, Chile) Premiere
•   Evil Does Not Exist, directed by Ryūsuke HAMAGUCHI, fiction (Japan) French Premiere
•   Ishanou directed by Aribam Syam SHARMA, fiction (India) Restored copy
•   The Mother of All Lies, directed by Asmae EL MOUDIR, documentary (Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) Premiere
•   A Golden Life, directed by Boubacar SANGARÉ, documentary (Burkina Faso, Benin, France)
•   Silent Witnesses directed by Jerónimo ATEHORTÚA & Luis OSPINA, fiction (Colombia, France)
•   City of Wind, directed by Lkhagvadulam PUREV-OCHIR, fiction (France, Mongolia, Portugal, the Netherlands), French Premiere–First Feature Film

Pioneer filmmaker and the first Sub-Saharan African woman ever to make a feature film (Letter from My Village (1975), winner of the Georges Sadoul prize and the Critics’ Award at the Berlin International Film Festival), Safi Faye passed away last February just as the Festival des 3 Continents was preparing to invite her to Nantes to present her life’s work. After first studying ethnology at EHESS, and then graduating from the Louis Lumière school, she quit her teaching job to dedicate her career to the cinematographic art after meeting Jean Rouch, who cast her in Little by Little. The works Safi Faye created have a strong documentary leaning, and she used filmmaking tools not only to promote the possible emancipation of women, social justice, and freedom from colonialism, but also to reconnect an oral, movement-based, earthly tradition to its power and history. A filmmaker who remained true to her Serer roots, Safi Faye was the perfect incarnation of an African person contending with the challenges of her time.

In partnership with INA (Institut national de l’audiovisuel), excerpts from interviews with Safi Faye will introduce each screenings. 

Awards Ceremony at Stereolux

Awards will be announced at the end of a movie-concert on the theme of Selbé: One Among Many (1982) by Safi Faye. The music will be specially composed for the event by Blackbush Orchestra.

With over 30 feature films to her credit since 1979, Ann Hui is the most prolific female director in the history of Asian cinema. But her status in the Hong Kong movie scene is paradoxical, to say the least. Despite not being as recognized by Western audiences as her male New Wave counterparts (Johnnie To, Wong Kar-Wai, John Woo, Patrick Tam, Tsui Hark, Yuen Woo-Ping), her films from the late 70s and early 80s count among those that signalled the rebirth of a form of cinematography that would become among the most emblematic in all of Asia. This retrospective is an invitation to explore a body of work that spans genres (thrillers, melodramas, swashbuckling epics…), and focuses closely over a long period on issues of exile, history, and Hong Kong Chinese identity.

With the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office – Brussels, CreateHK and the FDC (Film Development Council).

We know little of Vietnamese cinema; while French audiences are familiar with Trân Anh Hùng’s films from the 90s, our collective vision of Vietnam is deeply influenced by American films about the Vietnam War, or, for the most dedicated movie buffs, by a certain militant European cinema from the 60s and 70s. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and France, the Festival des 3 Continents travels back along the rich and complex trajectory of this cinematography that anchors its ambitions in the context of the dividing up of the country and a series of armed conflicts. Whether an act of resistance through images, focusing on figures that were important to the people, or affirming their identity and cultural diversity, Vietnamese cinema has always sought greater unity by examining contrasts and antagonisms.

In partnership with the Vietnam Film Institute.

More often than not, conversations of popular Indian cinema are generally limited to Bollywood and revolve around movie stars, if not superstars, rather than films. Amitabh Bachchan is one such superstar: an absolute, indisputable icon that both the BBC and Time magazine named the greatest star of the millennium. No other name sparks quite the same reaction, if only perhaps his heir apparent, Shah Rukh Khan, who couldn’t be more different to the current ‘king’ and who has shared the screen with him in several films. Amitabh Bachchan is more than an actor: he’s a living legend whose face has been plastered on the walls of every street in the Indian subcontinent for over half a century, keeping his legend alive. But why this Bachchan cult? The Festival des 3 Continents deciphers the ‘Big B phenomenon’ through nine emblematic films from a career of over 200, plus the world première of The Real Superstar, a documentary (about his life and career) by Cédric Dupire.

In partnership with the Film Heritage Foundation and with the support of the French Embassy in India.

In Sunless, Chris Marker reminds us that memory – remembrance and forgetting – are two sides of the same coin: the treasure for those who, even if they cannot remember everything, have not forgotten everything, either. In other words, cinema as an archive, providing food for thought about the present, constantly weaving the threads of time: Satyajit Ray’s tale of lost love, Johnnie To’s story of revenge, Ari Folman’s memories of war, or Rithy Panh’s piecing together of a past that has been erased. This intertwining of memory, remembrance and forgetting is the very substance of the films in our programme. This one, like the others, is for all audiences. The Festival has produced an educational booklet for secondary school teachers, as this selection is also an invitation to their pupils to take part in the 3 Continents.

First Steps Towards the 3 Continents offers a selection of films for children aged three and up and their families. Motion picture discovery workshops will be held after several of the weekend screenings as well as on the Wednesday during the Festival. This special selection for kids will also be made available to pre-school and primary-school classes in Nantes and throughout the Loire-Atlantique region, with special educational materials.

All information and the Festival timetable here