40th Cabourg Film Festival: high school students passionate about cinema from the youth jury experience “a unique moment”

At the Cabourg Romantic Film Festival (Calvados), there are not only juries set up and made up of actors, filmmakers, writers. There is also the perspective of youth, and the guarantee of an obvious handover. In any case, this is what the youth jury represents, which is participating in this 40th edition, in parallel with the feature film jury chaired by Agnès Jaoui.

Eight young cinema enthusiasts

There are eight of them, all passionate about cinema, and have the common point of studying second option audiovisual cinema in different establishments in Normandy. Rafaël comes from the Marie-Joseph high school in Trouville-sur-Mer, Victoria from the Jean-François Millet high school in Cherbourg-Octeville, Léane from the Jean Prévost high school in Montivilliers, Aylin from the Leclerc Navarre high school in Alençon, Isidore from Marie Curie high school in Vire, Édouard from the experimental high school in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, Martin from the Thomas Corneille high school in Barentin and Juliette from the Marcel Gambier high school in Lisieux.

All were selected in their respective classes by their teachers, on a voluntary basis, in order to participate in the Cabourg festival. “Our teacher told us about the festival, she selected a person in the class. There were two criteria…: our level in cinema throughout the year, and a cover letter…” specifies Isidore. If some of them have already attended the Premiers Plans festival in Angers as part of their high school option, for most, this is the first festival experience, “inside”.

 We only see passionate people here…

For these eight high school students, the experience is precious. “ It’s a unique moment, we can see lots of films from different nationalities, which we might never have seen if we hadn’t been here…” attests Rafaël. Films are one thing, but contact and exchanges also constitute one of the riches of this adventure.

We meet lots of filmmakers, actors and actresses, passionate people like us who enjoy discussing their films, their experience, sometimes giving advice, and that’s really nice.

Jury members, film crews… There are lots of people to meet in Cabourg during the festival. “The most impressive thing here is that we only see passionate people, who have been part of the cinema industry for a long time, it allows us to get feedback from passionate people, it’s enriching,” comments Isidore.

A few hours earlier, they were able to chat with none other than Isabelle Huppert, who came to receive an honorary Swann at the festival. Or Agnès Jaoui, David Foenkinos, member of the jury, and godfather of the youth jury.

Léane appreciates for her part “ being able to ask them for advice, what their journey has been, it allows us to enlighten us for later… ” Because everyone has the objective of breaking into this environment: as filmmakers, actors or actresses, screenwriters, or even all at once.

The red carpet: “It’s intimidating”

The adventure of the jury also means adhering to a particular festival rhythm.  We go to the screenings in the morning and afternoon, and afterward we talk to each other about the films ” explains Victoria. On Friday, they met to determine who to give the youth jury prize to. And apparently there were debates. “We didn’t agree,” notes Rafael, but in the end, everyone agreed on a film, “we have a valid reason behind it.” We will have to wait a few more hours to find out which film in the competition they have chosen.

Before that, it’s time for the red carpet, again, an impressive experience.

On the red carpet, there are a lot of people, it’s a bit intimidating.

“When we left the Grand Hôtel, with the huge crowd, it did something” assures Rafaël, even if “the audience had their backs to the sun, so we didn’t really see them” notes Édouard.

Among their favorite filmmakers, they mention David Lynch, Guillermo Del Toro, Quentin Dupieux, Christopher Dolan, Bong Joon-ho, Michel Gondry, Xavier Dolan, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Sergio Léone, David Lynch, Sofia Coppola and Tim Burton… Let’s hope they follow in their footsteps…

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