Since 2014, La Semaine de la Critique has been supporting talented short film directors who have presented a short film at La Semaine de la Critique towards making their first feature through the Next Step programme. After presenting their short film in Cannes, filmmakers are invited to come in December to Moulin d'Andé and then to Paris for our workshop. For a whole week, international consultants will advise them on their script, their score, and on how to launch their film on the market. It also entails professional meetings in Paris, which are opportunities to forge new collaborations with potential French coproducers, sellers and distributors. Since 2022, we have taken Morelia Film Festival’s invitation to Cannes a step further by inviting a Mexican filmmaker to participate in the Next Step programme.
In 2023, the Next Step Hildegarde Award, with its 2,500€ endowment and an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival for the director with the most promising feature film project, has been awarded to Liar Man by Manolis Mavris, from the 9th Next Step edition, by a jury composed of 4 industry experts. In 2024, the jury is composed by Roxane Arnold, Head of distribution at Pyramide Films ; Marion Delord, Hildegarde’s Executive Director ; Markus Duffner, Head of Locarno Pro and Ioana Stais, Head of sales and acquisitions at Heretic.
The Next Step HILDEGARDE Prize 2024 goes to
A GIRL UNKNOWN
by chinese filmmaker ZOU Jing
Zou Jing, born in 1984, is a Chinese director and writer based out of Shanghai and Los Angeles. Jing comes from a literature background, but she found her calling when she began working at Shanghai International TV station on documentaries as a director and editor. As a fanatic lover of literature and philosophy, Jing has always loved writing. Lili Alone (Duo Li) was awarded by the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film at La Semaine de la Critique 2021. Her ultimate goal is to write and direct feature films that explore the truths in modern China life.
ZOU Jing © Julia Hervouin
We are delighted to see that, to this day, 35 features have been released, the most recent ones being Universal Language by Matthew Rankin at Directors' Fortnight 2024, Some Rain must Fall by Qiu Yang and Arcadia by Yorgos Zois screened at the 2024 Berlinale, section Encounters, My Wonderful Stranger by Johanna Pyykkö at the 2024 Göteborg IFF, The Permanent Picture by Laura Ferrés at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival and Sky Peals by Moin Hussain at the 2023 Venice Critics’ Week. 4 feature films previously developed at Next Step workshop premiered in Cannes in 2023, amongst them How To Have Sex by Molly Manning Walker, Un Certain Regard Prize.
For the 10th edition, La Semaine de la Critique launched Next Step Volume II, a purposefully hybrid workshop dedicated to the rework of script and score creation. The first session took place in September 2023 and gave international directors and composers the opportunity to meet around score composition, allowing them to think about it as an integral part of their script as well as a rich artistic counterpoint.
For the 10th edition, La Semaine de la Critique launched Next Step Volume II, a purposefully hybrid workshop dedicated to the rework of script and score creation. The first session took place in September 2023 and gave international directors and composers the opportunity to meet around score composition, allowing them to think about it as an integral part of their script as well as a rich artistic counterpoint.
With the support of