This annual showcase includes some of the most exciting new cinematic voices from France, including award winners from Cannes, Locarno & more. This year there are three LGBT+ selections included as well, including the winner of the Queer Palme from Cannes. Click here for a list of cinemas offering this virtual experience. Ticket purchases help support closed art house theaters.

To get your ticket, click on the cinema closest to you that you’d like to support. You’ll have to register for an account if you don’t already have one. After you’ve entered your payment information, your rental period will start immediately and last for five days. You can watch the film as many times as you want in those five days. You can watch on your computer, phone, or most tablets. 

Full Program

AHMED’S SONG (Le chant d’Ahmed)

Director: Foued Mansour

Winner of Bridging the Borders Award at the Palm Springs International ShortFest 2019

Ahmed, employed at the public baths and nearing retirement, encounters Mike, a teenager adrift. Between the bath house walls, a friendship will develop between these two fractured souls. (30m)

SHEEP, WOLF, AND A CUP OF TEA (Moutons, loup et tasse de thé)

Director: Marion Lacourt

Official selection: 2019 Locarno Film Festival 

At night, while family members indulge in curious rituals before sleeping, a child invokes a wolf from the bottom of a box hidden under his bed. Disturbing sheep then besiege the door of his bedroom…(12m)

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US AND THE SKY (La distance entre nous et le ciel)

Director: Vasilis Kekatos

Winner of Short Film Palme d’Or and Queer Palme at Cannes 2019

Two strangers meet for the first time one night in a remote gas station. The first one fills up his car, while the second one lacks a few euros necessary to get home. They haggle & sparks fly. (9m)

THE TEARS THING,

(Le coup des larmes)

Director: Clémence Poésy

Official selection: 2019 Venice Film Festival

Florence is an actress & preparations for a new role will challenge her in a way she could never have seen coming…by way of an ex-girlfriend. (25m)

MAGNETIC HARVEST, (La traction de pôles)

Director: Marine Levéel

Mickaël seems to move in a nebula of desires: find his lost pig, get his organic farming certification, stop being lonely. But from afar, Mickaël looks more like a magnet attracted to Paul. (24m)

THE GLORIOUS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH OF NICOLAS CHAUVIN (Le discours d’acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin)

Director: Benjamin Crotty

Official selection: 2018 New York Film Festival | Winner of Mantarraya Award

During his acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award, Nicolas Chauvin – farmer soldier, veteran of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the father of chauvinism – embarks on a grand monologue, sending him back in time and space. Until, at a bend on a moonlit road, a spectral encounter changes the course of his non-existence. (26m)

Kino Marquee   is a new initiative that creates “virtual cinemas” for temporarily closed independent theaters. Local audiences support their community’s theater in these uncertain times by buying a virtual “ticket” to watch the film. Their ticket purchases directly support their local art house as all revenue is being shared between distributor and exhibitor, just as if they bought their ticket at the theater’s box office. Kino Marquee currently works with over 350 art house theaters across the nation.

 

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.