3rd L’Œil d’Or Award Winner

Will not deny that I'm very pleased with this edition of the documentary award as believe winner is undoubtedly the most interesting doc in the festival as surely has awesome visuals, definitively must be a great cinema experience and most of all, the idea behind film is truly outstanding, one that should be emulated (copied!) everywhere in the world, especially in smaller towns.

The Golden Eye (as is called in English) this year goes to Visages, Villages (Faces, Places) by Agnès Varda and JR.

The jury’s justification was the following: "Our jury has been deeply moved by Agnès and JR’s decision to meet local, so-called ‘little’ people, and our hearts have been touched by this movie-tale about consideration for the other through art. These combined perspectives are both delicate and generous."

Agnès Varda daughter, Rosalie Varda, received the award yesterday and here is a nice photo of the award ceremony.




We know about Agnès Varda monumental filmmography, so let's learn a bit about JR.  Street-artist JR work is breathtaking to put it simply as has many giant-size photos that could blew anybody's mind.  Among his work there is one 150 m2 monumental fresco that recently opened at Palais de Tokyo,  forming a singular portrait of the inhabitants of Clichy-Montfermeil (Seine-Saint-Denis), suburbs where the popular rebellions that shook France in 2005 began.  If wish to learn more go here.  The following photo shows an excerpt of this work.



JR lives in France and New York, so there is work done in USA, like The Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles, Lovers on the Roof, USA, 2012 a giant-sized print installed in a what looks like a warehouse roof. Fabulous!  Then there is the installation of  Giants in Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics and so many more that could spend hours looking to his marvelous work, but believe we already got the idea of how great JR is and if you wish to learn more go to Artist website here.

As we know, the documentary follows the two artists as they travel through rural France in JR's van, which doubles as a photographic studio and laboratory that can produce giant-sized prints.  On their journey they photograph some of the people they meet and then paste billboard-sized images on the walls of their community houses and workplaces.

But let's check the doc synopsis.
Agnès Varda and JR have things in common: their passion for images in general and more particulary questioning the places where they are showed, how they are shared, exposed. Agnès chose cinema. JR chose to create open-air photographic galleries. When Agnès and JR met in 2015, they immediately wanted to work together, shoot a film in France, far from the cities. Random encounters or prepared projects, they will go towards the others and get them to follow them on their trip with JR's photographic truck. The film is also about their friendship that grows during the shooting, between surprises and malice, laughing of their differences.



Most interesting is American press already talking about doc going to the Oscars and well, this time absolutely agree even when we know is too-early; but, let's hope doc momentum stays up until Oscars nominations time.

Film is must-be-seen for me and many will be able to watch it from June 28 when opens in France theaters.  Cohen Media Group handles international sales.

Winner is in *BLUE.  Check the film poster.



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5/3/17
For the third consecutive year the SCAM (Société civile des auteurs multimedia) will honor documentaries with the award L’Œil d’or and this morning organizers had their press conference where they announced the members of the jury and the films that will be considered for the 2017 award.

A little background from the official site about the award for our recall benefit.  Cinema has its roots in documentary film. This unique depiction of the world is becoming increasingly popular on the big screen and among the public. It is garnering more critical recognition and becoming more visible at festivals. As such, it deserves to be acknowledged at Cannes.

The L'Œil d’Or - Documentary Award was created in 2015 by LaScam (The French civil society for multimedia authors), in collaboration with the Cannes Festival and its General Delegate Thierry Frémaux, with the support of the INA (the French national audiovisual Institute). It will be awarded to a documentary screened in one of the Cannes Festival sections: Official Selection, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Classics, Directors' Fortnight, Semaine de la Critique, Special Screenings & Out of Competition and Short & Feature-Length Films.

On May 23 organizers will held the Doc Day 2017 that this year includes a conversation with Amos Gitaï plus more events where the documentary has the center stage. The Doc Day is organized by Cannes Marché du Film with the support of the Ford Foundation and the partnership of the CNC and the organizers of L’Œil d’or.

The following are the films that will be considered for the award and do include the documentaries in Cannes Classics as we learned them just a few minutes ago.

Official Selection
12 Jours (12 Days), Raymond Depardon, France
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, USA
Carré 35, Eric Caravaca, France
Demons in Paradise, Jude Ratman, Sri Lanka and France
Le Vénérable W., Barbet Schroeder, France and Switzerland
Napalm, Claude Lanzmann, France
Promised Land, Eugene Jarecki, USA
Sea Sorrow, Vanessa Redgrave, UK
*Visages, Villages, Agnès Varda and JR, France

Quinzaine des réalisateurs
Alive in France, Abel Ferrara, USA and France
Nothingwood, Sonia Kronlund, France
Retour à Genoa City, Benoit Grimalt, France, 28'
West of the Jordan River (Field Diary Revisited), Amos Gitaï, France and Israel

Semaine de la Critique
Los Desheredados, Laura Ferres, Spain, 18'
Makala, Emmanuel Gras, France

Cannes Classics
Cary Grant - De l’autre côté du miroir (Becoming Cary Grant), Mark Kidel, France
David Stratton-A Cinematic Life, Sally Aitken, Australia
Filmworker, Tony Zierra, USA
Jean Douchet, l’enfant agité, Fabien Hagège, Guillaume Namur and Vincent Haasser, France
La belge histoire du festival de Cannes (The Belgian’s Road to Cannes), Henri de Gerlache, Belgium

Earlier April organizers announced that Sandrine Bonnaire will be the president of the jury but today we learn that none other than outstanding filmmaker Lucy Walker is also in the jury along with Lorenzo Codelli, Dror Moreh and Thom Powers.

The Jury
President: Sandrine Bonnaire, actress, director and screenwriter, France
Lucy Walker, director, UK
Dror Moreh, director, Israel
Lorenzo Codelli, film critic, Italy
Thom Powers, film programmer, USA

This year the award will be presented on Saturday May 17 at 12:00 at the Palais des Festivals.  To read more about the award go official site here, available with some info in English but most data is in French.

The Press Conference

The Jury