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Source: Nina Duredevic, Yeo Seung Jin, Ammar Abd Rabbo, Jean Marie Gigon, David Tichacek, Harm Dens.

Top row Andrea Slavicek, Zhao Hao, Asmae el Moudir. Bottom row: Gessica Geneus, Diana Cam Van Nguyen, Meltse van Coillie

Six first or second-time international filmmakers are taking part in the Cannes Film Festival’s annual Résidence programme  that kicked off on October 1 in Paris and will run through February 2024.

Belgian director Meltse Van Coillie, Czech-Vietnamese filmmaker Diana Cam Van Nguyen, Chinese director Zhao Hao, Haitian director Gessica Généus, Croatian filmmaker Andréa Slaviček, and Moroccan director Asmae El Moudi will all work on their upcoming features with advice from industry experts in writing and producing their films.

“This year, five female directors and one male director stood out from the crowd,” said Stéphanie Lamome, programme head and artistic advisor to the festival. “A lot of participants have written to say how the experience of the Résidence, both on a personal and professional level, was fundamental to them.”

Launched by Gilles Jacob and Pierre Viot in 2000, the Residence programme holds two sessions per year and has hosted over 250 filmmakers from 60 countries.  Notable previous participants include Camera d’Or winning directors Lukas Dhont (Girl) and Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest), Cannes, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning Son Of Saul director Laszlo Nemes and Cesar and Oscar-winning filmmaker Nadine Labaki. Brazilian filmmaker Karim Ainouz, one of the programme’s first residents, won the Un Certain Regard prize in 2019. His latest film Firebrand 
screened in Competiton at Cannes in May.  

Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, participated in the 2006-2007 programme and went on to win the festival’s jury prize in 2021 for Ahed’s Knee. “The most beautiful gestures from my film came to mind at the kitchen in the Résidence when I was pressing oranges in the juice machine.”

This year’s residents will head to Cannes for the festival’s 77th edition taking place from May 14-25, 2024. The festival will reveal details on their upcoming feature projects later this year. It is the second iteration of the programme in 2023 following the March to July residency.