The 14^th edition of Ateliers d’Angers – founded and directed by the Festival Premiers Plans – kicks off today, Wednesday 22 August. This year, the residence has chosen seven young French filmmakers with the aim of helping them create their first fiction feature film. Until 29 August, residents will benefit from masterclasses hosted by the French directors Alain Guiraudie and Thomas Cailley, their Spanish colleague Jaime Rosales, French screenplay writer Catherine Paillé and the Italian producer Carlo Cresto-Dina (who runs the company Tempesta). It’s also of note that six films discovered at Cannes will be premiered, including the Caméra d’Or winner Girl [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lukas Dhont
ficha de la película] by the Belgian director Lukas Dhont, Our Struggles [+lee también:
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entrevista: Guillaume Senez
ficha de la película] by his compatriot Guillaume Senez and Sofia [+lee también:
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entrevista: Meryem Benm'Barek
ficha de la película]by Meryem Benm'Barek (winner of the Best Screenplay award in the Un Certain Regard section). The three finalists will be making their way to Angers,where the following films will also be screened: Happy as Lazzaro [+lee también:
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entrevista: Alice Rohrwacher
ficha de la película]by the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher (Best Screenplay award in competition on the Croisette), Shéhérazade [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Jean-Bernard Marlin (co-written with Catherine Paillé) and Petra [+lee también:
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entrevista: Jaime Rosales
ficha de la película] by Jaime Rosales.

A list of the projects selected for the Ateliers d’Angers 2018 and a mini synopsis of each film:

Mounia Akl (Lebanon) – Costa Brava [+lee también:
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Lebanon, 2020. The waste crisis that began in 2014 has reached unbearable levels. It’s not easy to live in Lebanon these days, but the Badri family manages to live a peaceful existence away from the city’s violence and rot. Parents Walid and Soraya, Walid's mother, Zeina, and their daughters, Tala and Rim, lead an idyllic and humble secluded life in their old family home, which they have transformed into a safe and clean space. However, the government finally finds a solution to the crisis and it’s not good news for the Badri family. A large dump is due to be built just outside their home, bringing all the rot and waste that has accumulated over the years to their doorstop, causing reality to come knocking. 

Emad Aleebrahim Dehkhordi (Iran-France) – Chevalier noir

North of Tehran, on the mountainside, 21-year-old Amir and 18-year-old Ali live with their father in an old bourgeois area of the city, bordering a religious and "nouveau riche" neighbourhood. After the untimely death of their mother, Amir – who sees their father, a former opium addict, as the only person responsible for their ruined life – looks for a way to leave the family home and take Ali, his younger brother, with him. Taking advantage of his relationship with the golden youth of Tehran, he embarks on a lucrative business plan. But one night, a simple delivery leads to chaos and threatens to upset the destiny of the two brothers.

Émilie Brisavoine (France) – Droit de véto

Zoe is a fighter. Child of the DDASS, she fought to make her dreams come true. And she succeeded: the thirty-something is now a brilliant vet and has been living with JB for 10 years in a clean and safe suburb of Paris. Everything should be fine. Unfortunate then that nothing is. There’s a gap between her childhood dreams and what she has become. Zoe burns out. In order to regain her footing, she will have to find her way between her links to the past, the present and those she will build…

Julien Gaspar-Oliveri (France) – Si tu tapes étoile

In the midst of an intimate family revolution, Jean, a young thirty-year-old, seeks meaning in his life and finds comfort in Anna, a transgender prostitute. 

Christelle Lheureux (France) – Le vent des crocodiles

On a hot dreamlike misty night, Charlotte bumps into Simon by a lake. The lightness of their first moments together, during which dreams and lies already become intertwined, gives way to a fear of suffering, along with a heat that is very unusual for the month of April. Reality is not always what it seems. But one thing is certain: tonight there’s a campout. Charlotte is busy setting up with Hugo, a local kid, and Jun, a Korean boy who is passing through and in the middle of a personal crisis. Both will unintentionally become embroiled in the evening’s events.

Camille Lugan (France) – Fun, Fun, Fun

Faster, stronger, freer: these are Cheyenne's obsessions. A bike courier in Paris, she lives without fear or ties, except those that bind her to her best friend Tarik. But when she meets Esteban, Cheyenne discovers that freedom has a price… 

Héloïse Pelloquet (France) – Soizic et Maxence

Soizic, 40, and her husband Antoine are oyster farmers on a small island on the tip of Brittany. One stormy day, Maxence, 16, their new apprentice, arrives on the island and comes into their lives. Weeks are spent repairing the damage caused by the storm. Maxence works well and pleases Antoine. Soizic too. One day they are due to attend the wedding of their friend Tony. Soizic looks beautiful and that night, Maxence kisses her. And so begins their love story.