The fourth edition of Film Maudit 2.0 is available to stream online from January 12 to February 11, 2023. Inspired by French avant-garde filmmaker and writer Jean Cocteau, who created the original Festival du Film Maudit (literally “cursed films”) in 1949, Maudit 2.0 aims to celebrate overlooked, shocking and experimental films with a showcase and celebration of outré films,

There will be over 100 works of cinema from 20+ countries, including films rarely, if ever, seen in festivals: works addressing socio-political issues and taboo subject matter that challenges conventional artistic assumptions and sexual mores. The wide range of shorts, narrative, documentary and experimental films selected are deliberately bold, extreme, confrontational and unusual.

With its hybrid physical and virtual format, Film Maudit 2.0 is moving forward into the exciting future of the festival-going experience, breaking down an exclusivity that has previously marred the indie landscape and its films/filmmakers, while at the same time allowing the participation and conversation of filmmakers across time-zones who wouldn’t have the ability to travel to festivals.

This dual power of both a theatrical experience and a streaming landscape for independent filmmakers, welcomes local audiences back  to experience the richness of the live filmgoing experience with films that typically would not screen locally in such a context, while at the same time making most of the films accessible to a wider national and international audiences in an online portal.

Festival Artistic Director Patrick Kennelly says,“There is a connecting spirit to all of the works in Film Maudit 2.0, each selected to engage a different facet of the cinematic imagination. These radical cinema-sations are guaranteed to entertain, challenge the mind and shock the senses.”

– The BEHOLD! Queer Film and Performance Series, featuring multiple feature and shorts programs that showcase works from and about the LGBTQ+ and Latinx communities spread over three curated categories.Fri. February 3
1-900-BODY-ON-THE-LINE (curated by Celeste Kamppila)
Sat. February 4
TIGHT: An exploration of the architectures of restriction (curated by Gina Young)
Sat. February 11
Ecstasy and Reminiscence: Nights Out in Los Angeles (curated by Dino Dinco & Juan Antonio Fernández)

Feature Films

Agatha (60m, USA)  Surreal Dystopian Dream Narrative / Mixed Media
El Apego (The Attachment Diaries)  (102m, Argentina)   Queer Erotic Thriller
Endless Content Forever  (70m, USA)
Horror absurdist found footage acid trip satire of “content:
Fat Fleshy Fingers (85m, USA)
Anthology film from Bizarroland; FM alums
The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra (65, South Korea ) Magical realist whimsical body horror
Holy Mother (115m, Japan ) Action gore
Interface (117m, USA/Canada)   Animated / Surreal
Jerk  (61m, France)  A puppet play by Houston Mass Murders killer
Life of Mariko in Kabukicho (116m, Japan )
Darkly comic sci-fi mystery/drama; multi-story
Mad in Belgium (90m, France/Belgium)
Documentary about bizarro Belgium filmmaking
Piaffe (86, Germany) Surreal psychological drama
Razzennest (80m, Austria) Experimental Horror / Mockumentary (FM alum)
Surrender Your Horns  (61m, Ireland) Experimental Fiction-Documentary Hybrid
To Whoever Wants To Listen  (90m, France)   Documentary about Noise Music
Wild Bones  (87m, UK)   Psychological Thriller/Drama
Zeria  (61m, Belgium) Mixed-Media / Sci-Fi Dystopia
Zero Budget Heroes: The Legend of Chris Seaver & Low Budget Pictures  (105m, USA)
No-Budget Filmmaking Documentary

Full Festival Schedule and descriptions available here.

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.