Two-time Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Ruben Ostlund will be guest of honour at the sixth Talent Village of France’s Les Arcs Film festival and will mentor this year’s selection of eight first-time feature directors.
Part of the festival’s Industry Village, the four-day development initiative is aimed at helping emerging filmmakers make their feature debuts and will run from December 16-19 in the French Alps mountain town.
The eight directors taking part in the development initiative have made short films that have played at leading film festivals around the world.
Scroll down for the full list of 2023 directors
Ostlund shot his 2014 dark comedy Force Majeure at the popular winter ski resort and served as the jury president of the festival’s 10th edition in 2018. He will be honoured by the festival, lead a masterclass and meet the selected Talent Village filmmakers to give them advice and share his filmmaking experience with them.
In addition to Östlund’s mentorship, this year’s selected directors will attend a series of workshops and discussions about their projects in development before taking part in the festival’s Coproduction Village.
Workshops will be led by industry executives including Katrin Pors, producer at Denmark’s Snowglobe, Olivier Barbier, head of acquisitions at France’s mk2 Films, Gaia Furrer, artistic director of Venice’s Giornate Degli Autori, and music supervisor Laura Gentile of French music supervision and sound production company Schmooze.
One of this year’s eight directors will receive the festival-endowed €1,500 Talent Village Award chosen by a jury comprised of Susan Wendt, managing director of Denmark’s TrustNordisk, Roxanna Richters, producer at Germany’s Chromosom Films, and Italian filmmaker Giacomo Abbruzzese of Berlin 2022 Silver Bear-winning Disco Boy.
The directors of the Talent Village will also have the opportunity to work in collaboration with four emerging film music composers chosen for the parallel Music Village in partnership with Sacem to enourage the creation of film scores for the projects in the works. The 2023 composers selected are France’s Niki Demiller and Juliette Sedes, The Netherlands’ Jac Von Exter and Romania’s Ovidiu Zimcea.
Pierre Emmanuel Fleurantin, CEO and co-founder of Les Arcs Film Festival, told Screen: “The choice fell on Ruben Ostlund as Ambassador of the Talent Village because he is one of the most inspiring directors of his generation. For the young directors of the Talent Village, he is an example of audacity, of the search for singularity which allows cinema to renew itself. And he is also a faithful friend of Les Arcs since the filming of Force Majeure.”
Les Arcs Film Festival runs December 16-23.
Les Arcs 2023 Talents
Emma Branderhorst (Neth)
Director of short films Ma Mère Et Moi (Berlinale Generation) and Spotless (Nederlands IFF, Berlinale Generation)
Alma Buddecke (Ger)
Director of short films Handbook For A Privileged European Woman (Warsaw IFF), Hot Dog (Sundance)
Josephine Darcy Hopkins (Fr)
Director of the short Sweet Tooth (Clermont-Ferrand FF)
Marlene Emilie Lyngstad (Den)
Director of the short Norwegian Offspring (Cinef Cannes)
Isabella Margara (Gr)
Director of the short Nothing Holier Than A Dolphin (Clermont-Ferrand IFF, Sarajevo FF)
Lisa Sallustio (Belg)
Director of the short films The Pushpins (FIFF Namur, Contis IFF, Angoulême FF), The Water Cooler War (Interfilm FF Berlin, War on Screen FF)
Rinaldas Tomaševičius (Lith)
Director of the short films Last Time (Clermont-Ferrand IFF, Vilnius IFF), -15 (Karlovy Vary IFF)
Anna Wowra (Pol-Cze)
Director of the short film Stuck Together (Karlovy Vary IFF)
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