Two Australian shorts selected for Cannes Film Festival

26 04 2018 - Media release Two Australian shorts selected for Cannes Film Festival

All These Creatures and Dots

Two Australian shorts have been selected for the 71st Festival de Cannes which will run from 8-19 May, in Cannes, France.

Charles Williams' All These Creatures is one of eight titles in competition for the 2018 Short Film Palme d'Or, to be awarded by Bertrand Bonello, President of the Jury, at the official award ceremony on 19 May. This year, the selection committee received 3,943 short film submissions.

Eryk Lenartowicz's short film Dots will screen in the Cin fondation section, and is one of 17 shorts selected from 2,426 titles nominated by film schools around the world. The jury will hand over the three Cin fondation prizes at a ceremony on Thursday 17 May, in the Bu uel Theatre.

It's fantastic to see two Australian shorts on show at Cannes, in an incredibly competitive year, said Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason. Cannes is one of the biggest and most important celebrations of cinema on the annual festival calendar and continues to play a pivotal role in showcasing Australian films and the talent of our local screen practitioners to an international audience.

Charles and Eryk are both talented emerging local filmmakers who have produced films with a unique and distinctive Australian voice, and I wish them every success at the festival, said Mason.

Cannes has an impressive history of launching careers. The selection of Jane Campion's student short Peel at Cannes was the start of her long relationship with the festival it won the Short Film Palme d'Or in 1986 and she has gone on to have multiple features screened including her debut Sweetie in 1989, The Piano (1993), Bright Star (2009) and Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017).

Director David Mich d's The Rover screened in the Midnight section in 2014, but his first appearance was Bear (directed by Nash Edgerton, which Mich d wrote), selected for shorts competition in 2011.

All These Creatures was shot in Dandenong on the outskirts of Melbourne and stars 13 year old Ethiopian born Australian Yared Scott in the lead role of Tempest, an adolescent boy trying to understand his destructive father, and the events leading up to a tragedy.

To be selected as one of the few films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival is everything I could hope for, said Williams. Cannes is the mecca for great movies, and to have even a short film screen there is a dream.

Dots, is an absurdist dark comedy shot in the Blue Mountains, and set in a small Australian town where people start dying after the arrival of a mysterious stranger. In this fictional town, the local police officer is too preoccupied with his car to pay attention to the deaths happening around him.

Dots was made while Eryk was completing his Master of Arts at the Australian Film and Television & Radio School. It is every filmmaker's dream to have their project screened at the Cannes Film Festival and I am truly grateful to have this privilege at such an early stage of my career, said Lenartowicz. Now I know what it feels like when a dream becomes reality; a beautiful combination of weirdness, adrenaline, hope, fear, excitement and pure joy all at once.

The Festival de Cannes takes place from 8-19 May. Internationally acclaimed Australian actress Cate Blanchett will act as the President of The Jury. Bruce Beresford's 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy will screen as part of the Cannes Classics line-up.

View Screen Australia s Cannes showcase here

Media enquiries Jessica Parry | Senior Publicist

61 2 8113 5833 | 61 428 767 836 | jessica.parry@screenaustralia.gov.au

Clio Anne Ellis | Publicist & Events

61 2 8113 1091 | 61 405 492 745 | clio.ellis@screenaustralia.gov.au

All other general/non-media enquiries Sydney 61 2 8113 5800 | Melbourne 61 3 8682 1900 | info@screenaustralia.gov.au

LINK:	https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2018/04-26-two...
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