Without breaking away from its editorial line, which centres on the diversity and “transversality” of international creation, FIPA (Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels) has nevertheless changed direction slightly for its 31^st edition (from 23 to 28 January in Biarritz), confirming the growing competition of specialised events dedicated to TV series.

100 films are in competition this year in the re-hashed sections: fiction, national documentary series, international documentary series, music and theatre, young content and audience choice.

Competing in the Series competition are Fierté by the French director Philippe Faucon (a 3x52” series starring Frédéric Pierrot, Jérémie Elkaïm, Emmanuelle Bercot and Chiara Mastroianni), the 2x70” Spanish series Estoy vivo, the Swedish 2x52” series Alex, the 3x 1h British series The Miniaturist, the 2x45” German series Zarah, Wilde Jahre, the 2x52” French series Ben, as well as titles from Russia, Brazil, Chile and Australia.

In the international documentary section is Enfants du hasard by the Belgian duo Thierry Michel and Pascal Colson, Open to the Public [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] by Italian director Silvia Bellotti, Hacking Justice by Clara López Rubio and Juan Pancorbo (a German-Spanish co-production), Stronger Than a Bullet by Maryam Ebrahimi (Sweden/France/Qatar), Over The Limit by Marta Prus (Poland/Germany/Finland), 690 Vopnafjördur by the Icelandic director Karna Sigurdardóttir and the German production M Märkischen Sand – Nella sabbia del Brandeburgo. 

Among the 13 national documentaries vying for a prize are La bleuite, l’autre guerre d’Algérie by Jean-Paul Mari, which tells the story of the largest operation never to go ahead by the French army against the National Liberation Front, Les champs de la colère by Anne Gintzburger, which focuses on women belonging to struggling agricultural sectors, and The Enemy by Karim Ben Kelifa, which includes face-to-face interviews, via an application, with soldiers in three war zones.

Finally, in competition for the Audience Award is the documentary Silent War by French director Manon Loizeau (a poignant film focusing on how the rape of women is used as a war tactic in Syria), The Ransom [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by her compatriot Rémi Lainé (about the business growing around kidnappings) and The Workers Cup by the British director Adam Sobel (which delves into the football world cup construction site in Qatar in 2002).

FIPA 2018, which will be dedicating a focus to Israeli audio-visual production, will also be organising three industry days with a number of discussions on the menu, as well as three events, pitch sessions and a program focused on innovation.