CIRCLE Showcase at Cannes Docs
2021
Maja Doroteja Prelog wins the top award at Docs-In-Progress for her film CENT'ANNI
© Loic Thebaud / Marché du Film
CIRCLE Showcase at Cannes Docs presented four projects. Find more about the selection on Variety.
MY DAD'S LESSONS
Directed by: Dalija Dozet (Croatia)
Produced by: Dana Budisavljević (Hulahop, Croatia), Vlado Bulajić (December, Slovenia)
Developed through: CIRCLE 2018
Throughout his life my dad Danko considered the camera as an extension of his hands. Every family gathering would end as a chaotic mise-en-scène in front of his camera. He died suddenly, in age of 52. Now that he and his camera are gone, we are not able to communicate. This film is a metacinematic portrait of the family and the relationship between the cameraman father and the director daughter.
XIXI
Directed by: Fan Wu (Taiwan)
Produced by: Fan Wu (Svemirko Audio Visual Art Productions,Taiwan); Venice Atienza (Svemirko Film Productions, The Philippines); Alex Tondowski (Tondowski Films, GbR)
Developed through: CIRCLE 2020
In my last summer in Europe after studies, I befriended XiXi, a Chinese improvisation artist. For a time, we were free from the ideologies we grew up in. Through years of video diary exchanges, our friendship that was a window to freedom, evolved into a room where what was silenced found its voice, forcing us to face the vulnerability that comes with the autonomy we never realized we’ve always possessed.
Awards and festival presence: "XiXi" by Fan Wu premiered in Hot Docs 2024, International Competition, receiving the Emerging International Filmmaker Award.
It also won the Development Prize for the Best Female Director by SMKT Sachsen during Dok Leipzig in 2020
CENT’ANNI
Directed by: Maja Doroteja Prelog (Slovenia)
Produced by: Rok Biček (Cvinger Film, Slovenia), Alessandro Leone (Agresywna Banda, Poland), Massimo Casula (Zena film, Italy)
Developed through: CIRCLE 2020
Filmmaker Maja follows her partner Blaž, a leukaemia survivor who embarks on an extraordinary cycling journey to heal from traumatic experience. What should have been a heroic journey became a battle for their relationship. CENT’ANNI is a personal confession about impact of the illness on a relationship told from the perspective of caregiver.
Awards and festival presence: "Cent'anni" by Maja Prelog won the IEFTA Award at Cannes Docs / Docs-In-Progress in 2021 and had its world premiere at Trieste Film Festival 2024 where it won Audience Award for Best Documentary.
GOD IS A WOMAN
Directed by: Bárbara Cunha (Brazil) Produced by: Chica Mendonça (Chá Cinematográfico, Brazil)
Developed through: CIRCLE 2020
Alexya Salvador is a trans indigenous-afro-american woman. Married, mother of three (including two trans girls) she lives a normative live. During a violent conservative wave in Brazil, she became the first Latin-America trans Reverend at her church and challenge orthodox religious values. She’s always death threatened. Her future is uncertain. Through her journey, she transforms her community.