05/04/2022 - The second Champagne-based edition of the Crime Film Festival is unspooling 5–10 April, offering up two competitions and tributes to Walter Hill, Martin Campbell and Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Relocated to Reims last year, the Crime Film Festival is welcoming flesh-and-blood cinephile fans of thrillers to the world’s champagne capital for the very first time (after a 2021 edition which took place online) on the occasion of the event’s 39th edition (and the second outing of Reims Polar), which will unfold between 5 and 10 April having been opened today by Giordano Gederlini’s On the Edge [+see also:
film review
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interview: Giordano Gederlini
film profile] (listen to our podcast), which is one of the ten feature films battling it out in the main competition.

It's a competition which also includes Future is a Lonely Place by the German duo Martin Hawie - Laura Harwarth, The Daughter [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Spain’s Manuel Martín Cuenca (well-received out of competition in San Sebastián), A Piece of Land by his compatriot Pau Calpe Rufat, The Generation of Evil [+see also:
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film profile] by Lithuania’s Emilis Velyvis (unveiled at Tallin’s Black Nights Festival), Rhino [+see also:
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film profile] by the Ukraine’s Oleh Sentsov (discovered in Venice’s Orizzonti line-up) and Assault by Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov. Likewise gracing the bill are The Execution by Russia’s Lado Kvataniya, Are You Lonesome Tonight? by China’s Wen Shipei and Midnight Silence by South Korea’s Kwon Oh-seung. These titles will be mulled over by a jury presided over by actor Niels Arestrup, who’s joined by Véronique Cayla, actress and director Hélène Fillières, actress Géraldine Pailhas, directors Sébastien Marnier and Florian Emilio-Siri, and novelist Hervé Le Corre.

The competitive, parallel Fresh Blood section, meanwhile (whose jury is led by actress Marie Drucker and further composed of Santiago Amigorena and Abdel Raouf Dafri, among other names), will present seven films including South Sentinel [+see also:
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interview: Mathieu Gérault
film profile] by France’s Mathieu Gerault (crowned the winner of the Bergamo Film Meeting on Sunday), Venetian competitor America Latina [+see also:
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film profile] by Italian brothers Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, and Silent Land [+see also:
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interview: Aga Woszczyńska
film profile] by Poland’s Aga Woszczynska (travelling from Toronto’s Platform competition). They’ll be up against Cadejo blanco by Justin Lerner (combining the production prowess of Guatemala, the USA and Mexico), Des feux dans la plaine by China’s  Zhang Ji, Les nuits de Zhenwu by fellow Chinese national Na Jiazuo, and Le bruit des moteurs by Canada’s Philippe Grégoire.

Also well worth a mention are five films screening out of competition, including Miracle [+see also:
film review
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interview: Bogdan George Apetri
film profile] by Romania’s Bogdan George Apetri (unveiled in Venice’s Orizzonti line-up), The Collini Case [+see also:
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interview: Marco Kreuzpaintner
film profile] by Germany’s Marco Kreuzpaintner and British title Operation Mincemeat [+see also:
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film profile] by English director John Madden (which will close this particular edition of Reims Polar). However, the festival’s vast programme also consists of a focus on nine Spanish feature films from the last decade (featuring films by one of the festival’s guests of honour Rodrigo Sorogoyen, but also by Daniel Calparsoro, Raúl Arévalo, Alberto Rodriguez, Pedro Almodóvar and Carlos Vermut), three episodes of the French series Les papillons noirs [+see also:
trailer
interview: Olivier Wotling
series profile] (created by Bruno Merle and Olivier Abbou), tributes to French actor Vincent Lindon, American director and screenwriter Walter Hill –both of whom will be delivering masterclasses - and New Zealand filmmaker Martin Campbell, an acting lesson courtesy of Jacques Weber, a filmmaking lesson courtesy of Yvan Attal and, last but not least, a gathering entitled "News Items & Films, Mirrors of Society" (chiefly involving director Vincent Garencq).

(Translated from French)