The Queer Palm, which rewards an LGBT feature and short film each year at Cannes, is extending its brand by announcing the creation of a Queer Palm Lab. The first edition will be sponsored by Lukas Dhont, director of Girl and Close. Explanations.
Since 2010, the Queer Palm has earned a place of choice among the prizes awarded during the Cannes Film Festival. Filmmakers Catherine Corsini, Céline Sciamma and Xavier Dolan were honored with this prize, which highlights the films that best address, among all the feature and short films selected at Cannes, homosexual, bisexual, transgender or “Queer” themes. . More specifically, these are films offering subjects and characters that break genre codes, and show something other than the norm.
The Queer Palm will now extend its brand by launching a call for projects. Met in Cannes, the founder of the Queer Palm, Franck Finance Madureira, announces the creation in 2023 of a Queer Palm Lab, and draws the outlines for us.
“After 12 years of existence, the award has gained momentum. We realize that we have become a little bit the anchor point of the Cannes Film Festival for all cinephiles, aspiring filmmakers, in the queer, LGBT, feminist spheres, etc. We realize how important the award has become, how it is perceived around the world. And somewhere, we say to ourselves that we have created a brand, which now has a weight, a force in the industry. It is a network that has been built, with different juries, different award-winning films throughout these 12 years.”
Franck Finance Madureira continues: “Rewarding a name each year, highlighting the performances, the way they evolve in cinema, that was the initial mission. I think we managed to make it work. (…) We are a little prescribers of a Cannes course, of a Queer Gaze in Cannes. The reflection was to say: what do we do with this career brand recognized by both festivals and professionals. Hence the idea of launching in 2023 what is called the Queer Palm Lab.”
5 projects will be selected in 2023 for the Queer Palm Lab
What will this Queer Palm Lab consist of? Franck Finance Madureira explains the different steps planned: “Set up a reading committee, and launch, from the beginning of 2023, a call for projects for first feature films. Because we identified that it was perhaps the most complex moment“.
“Ask, when registering, for a synopsis, and ask the directors why they want to tell this story? Instead of asking for a cover letter and a CV, it is a question of asking them why this story? Why They are the right person to tell it“, he continues.
Objective: choose five projects “by trying to have a diversity of profiles, to bring out new talents”. “Aspiring filmmakers belonging to queer, racialized, trans minorities are very often excluded from traditional circuits, film schools, and have backgrounds, generally more independent,” he adds..
“They will be offered a follow-up of their projects throughout the year. We will also offer them the opportunity to take advantage of our network according to the needs they may encounter during their writing, their production process, to introduce them to professionals who will be able to guide them, such as directors, screenwriters, producers , casting directors… The entire cinema panel of people who have already worked on these issues, who have a feeling for the market, with the idea of providing them with all the help for a year to move forward as quickly as possible possible in their project.“
“There is also the objective of creating a residence for 15 days where these five project leaders will meet, discuss their projects, and we will bring in experts to guide them and ensure that, in the long term, we have in all the festivals of the world of the films which are stamped, labeled Queer Palm Lab. It will be exponential since there will be 5 projects per year. Acting at the base of creation“.
The call for projects will be launched in early 2023 on the site QueerPalm.org. The Queer Palm short and feature awards for this 2022 edition of the Festival will be awarded this Friday, May 27.