Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival Holds Up Mirror to the World

variety.com:

Ben Croll Midway between Paris and the Mediterranean coast, France’s Clermont-Ferrand has become the world’s preeminent hub for short-form cinema, hosting both a festival and a market with unparalleled international reach.

Now celebrating its 46th edition – which runs Jan. 31 – Feb. 8 – the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival has long been a springboard for emerging auteurs, once upon a time shining a spotlight on little-known names like Jane Campion, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Chloé Zhao and Denis Villeneuve. “We’re not here to ‘discover’ anyone but rather to support and highlight talent, creating opportunities for filmmakers to connect with production houses, distributors, and other festivals,” says Clermont-Ferrand programmer and coordinator Julie Rousson. “And as a short film spotlight, we really feel like we’re capturing a snapshot of the entire world in a single week.” Rousson and her fellow programmers – all of them sharing equal footing in an expressly non-hierarchal organization – culled through more than 8,000 submissions to put together this year’s lineup, which represents 49 countries and boasts 41 world premieres in the international competition alone.

Much of that selection shares a sense of immediacy — with the 64 films slotted for Clermont-Ferrand’s international competition speaking to an unsteady world in as close to real-time as filmmaking can get. “[Because of their more expedited production schedules], short films can react much faster to current events, making them an immediate response to the world’s ongoing issues,” says Rousson.