Isabelle Prim, Edouard Bergeon win French Film Festival young talents competition

"Condition d'elevation" (State of Elevation) by Isabelle Prim and "Au nom de la terre" (In the Name of the Land) by Edouard Bergeon are the winning films in the young talents competitive section of the French Film Festival in Romania, agerpres reports.

According to a press statement released by the French Institute in Bucharest on Tuesday, the prize to director Prim in the short film competition is a creative stay at the Residence de Poche/Pocket Residence in Bucharest and it was awarded by a jury of three young film critics: Flavia Dima, Victor Morozov and Georgiana Musat.

"The winning film integrates the archives into a prefabricated and playful narrative about femininity and Jules-Vernes dreams, relying on a clash between technical and scientific images and a fictional soundscape," the jury noted.

Audiences voted for the winning film in the feature film section after both physical and virtual runs. Director Bergeon will receive a fellowship worth 1,000 euros from the French Institute. Moreover, a support package from TV5 Monde will be offered to the Romanian distributor who will bring the film to the theatres in the country. "Au nom de la terre," a story inspired by the director's life, has had a viewership of over two million spectators in France, according to the French Institute.

"27 French films, over 100 physical screenings, 11 virtual screenings, 11 days, 12 cities, over 5,000 viewers and two awards for young talent, those are the figures of the 25th edition of the longest-living festival in Romania dedicated to a national cinema, organized by the French Institute together with its partners between July 1 and 11. For the first time in the history of the festival, the screenings took place in three formats: online, in cinemas or cultural centres, as well as outdoors in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Arad, Brasov, Braila, Constanta, Sfantu Gheorghe, Sibiu, Suceava, and Targu Mures," according to the French Institute.

In Bucharest, at the Elvire Popesco Cinema and the outdoor courtyard of the French Institute, almost 2,000 spectators watched the festival's films together.

The curiosity and interest of the spectators in Bucharest were also enhanced by the possibility to meet and hear some of the directors who made the films that ran in the festival or who proposed them in the Carte Blanche section.