THE PROGRAMME’S MAIN OUTLINES DISCLOSED: HONG KONG AND INDIA IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The Festival des 3 Continents unveils today the main outlines of its 2024 programme and opens the sale of festival Passes and accreditations.

The 46th edition of the Festival des 3 Continents will be held from 15 to 23 November 2024 in Nantes and its partner cinemas across the Loire-Atlantique territory. 

A wide range of rare and previously unreleased films from Africa, Latin America and Asia will be presented, with India and Hong Kong as guests of honour.

In addition to a selection of contemporary films from three continents (International Competition and Special Screenings), the festival invites you to discover the work of the legendary Indian actor, filmmaker and producer Raj Kapoor, who would have turned 100 this year, and to celebrate, in her presence, Shabana Azmi’s 50 years career, an essential actress in Indian cinema. Also in the spotlight is the work of Derek Yee, one of the most influential figures in Hong Kong cinema. Finally, the festival is taking a step aside this year with a thematic and political programme focusing on the cosmopolitan nature of our society and French cinema.

. Official Selection

The Official Selection, comprising an International Competition and Special Screenings, includes recent feature films (fiction and documentary), most of which are world, European or French premieres.

. Tribute to Raj Kapoor (India)

On December 14th, India will open the centenary celebrations of the birth of a legend, Raj Kapoor, actor, director and producer considered to be ‘the greatest showman’ of Indian cinema. But the brilliant actor was also the director of ten films that renewed the forms and tonalities of popular Hindi cinema, giving the expression of the most diverse emotions a depth they had never before attained. Raj Kapoor’s aesthetic ambitions make him an unlikely synthesis of Renoir, Capra, a touch of Welles and, of course, Chaplin – his vagabond character unabashedly embracing this inspiration.

. Tribute to Shabana Azmi (India), in her presence 

Shabana Azmi is an actress of international renown, the emblematic face of both the new Indian cinema, known as ‘parallel cinema’, and a host of major commercial successes. She has won a record five national awards for best actress in India. But her formidable fame has never distanced her from the social and political realities of her country. A United Nations ambassador, she was also the first Indian to be awarded the Gandhi International Peace Prize for her commitment to defending women’s rights and fighting poverty. She will be coming to Nantes to celebrate her 50-year career.

Tributes supported by the Indian Embassy in France.

. Derek (Tung-sin) Yee retrospective: The Other Current of the Hong Kong New Wave

Little known in Europe, Derek Yee is one of the most influential figures in Hong Kong cinema, with a career spanning 40 years. An actor from childhood, he grew up in the bosom of the famous Shaw Brothers studio and the world of swashbuckling (sword movies) films. In the 1980s, when he was a star of action cinema, he decided to move behind the camera and directed two films, The Lunatics and People’s Hero, which established his name among a new generation of filmmakers alongside Johnnie To, Ann Hui and Tsui Hark, among others.

Programme organised with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels.

. We Cosmopolitans

The aim of this programme is to celebrate the vitality of French cinema through the prism of cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitanism is neither impossible nor unthinkable, but a desirable horizon, a fortune unfairly depreciated, and beyond the divisions and the many untruths that are expressed, a way of looking our youth in the eye, and of apprehending the influx of its energy and the ebb of its anxieties, those that run through us.

. First Steps Towards the 3 Continents

First Steps Towards the 3 Continents invites you to discover a selection of films for children three and up and their families. Motion picture discovery workshops will be held after several screenings during the festival. This special selection for kids will also be made available to pre-school and primary-school classes in Nantes and throughout the Loire-Atlantique territory, with special educational materials.

. Ceremonies and Resumption of the International Competition

The Festival des 3 Continents launches on November 15th in Nantes with the Opening Ceremony at the Théâtre Graslin Angers-Nantes Opéra, and closes with the International Competition Awards Ceremony on November 22nd, at Stereolux. The prize-winning films will be shown on November 23rd, at the Katorza cinema in Nantes, and from January 22nd to 26th at the Cinéma L’Arlequin in Paris.