Today marks the start of the 32^nd Premiers Plans – Angers Film Festival (unspooling from 17-26 January), a trailblazing event showing off the most promising talents that Europe has to offer, headed up by the energetic Claude-Eric Poiroux, and which has this year selected around 100 works.

The eight features duking it out in the international competition will be weighed up by a jury chaired by Juliette Binoche (who will also be giving a master class and who is being backed up by filmmakers Sarah Suco, Lukas Dhont and Franco Lolli as well as by Swiss musician Sophie Hunger). Three films that were first unveiled at Locarno will be locking horns: Giraffe [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Germany’s Anna Sofie Hartmann, Ivana the Terrible [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Ada Solomon
scheda film] by Romania’s Ivana Mladenović and the Belgian documentary Overseas [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Yoon Sung-A
scheda film] by Sung A Yoon. The line-up also includes A Thief’s Daughter [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Belén Funes
scheda film] by Spaniard Belén Funes (revealed in competition at San Sebastián, with Greta Fernández scooping the Best Actress Award to boot), the German production Oray [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
scheda film] by Turkey’s Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay (crowned Best First Feature at the 2019 Berlinale), A White, White Day [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Hlynur Pálmason
scheda film] by Iceland’s Hlynur Pálmason (Rising Star Award for actor Ingvar E Sigurðsson in the Cannes Critics’ Week), Psychobitch [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Norway’s Martin Lund (which recently won the Audience Award at the ArteKinoFestival) and the documentary That Which Does Not Kill [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Alexe Poukine
scheda film] by Belgium’s Alexe Poukine (winner of the Jury Prize for Most Innovative Film at Visions du Réel).

The competitive section dedicated to French feature debuts comprises four movies, with Two of Us [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Filippo Meneghetti
scheda film] by Filippo Meneghetti (world sales of which have been skyrocketing since its premiere at Toronto), My Days of Glory [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Antoine de Bary
scheda film] by Antoine de Bary (premiered at Venice, in the Orizzonti section) and two documentaries: Retiens la nuit by Simon Depardon, Baptiste Drouillac and Arthur Verret, and Des hommes [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] by Alice Odiot and Jean-Robert Viallet (unveiled at Cannes, on the ACID programme).

Besides the competitions for shorts, student films, animated works and titles for young audiences, the Angers-based festival, which will open with Stéphane Demoustier’s The Girl With a Bracelet [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Stéphane Demoustier
scheda film] (which was premiered at Locarno) and will be brought to a close by Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Olivier Assayas
scheda film] (presented in competition at Venice), will screen three feature-length documentaries in its competitive Diagonales section: Animus Animalis (A Story About People, Animals and Things) [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Aistė Žegulytė
scheda film] by Lithuania’s Aistė Žegulytė, Sad Song [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] by Louise Narboni, and the Swiss production Bird Island [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Maya Kosa e Sérgio da Costa
scheda film] by Maya Kosa and Sergio Da Costa.

Among the premiere screenings are How to Be a Good Wife [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Anamaria Vartolomei
scheda film] by Martin Provost, Small Country: an African Childhood [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Éric Barbier, Rocks [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Sarah Gavron
scheda film] by Brit Sarah Gavron, the Cannes titles Litigante [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Franco Lolli and Abou Leila [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Amin Sidi-Boumédiène, and the documentary Autonomes [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] by François Bégaudeau. It is also worth noting that The Bare Necessity [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Erwan Le Duc
scheda film] by Erwan Le Duc will be shown as a special screening.

Lastly, the programme also includes (among myriad other events) tributes and retrospectives dedicated to the duo of French documentarians Raymond Depardon and Claudine Nougaret (who will also give a master class), Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr, and Irish animators Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey (in the presence of the former). Thematic sidebars entitled "Sicilia!" and "Profession: Reporter" (including the excellent titles Collective [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Romania’s Alexander Nanau and the Oscar-nominated For Sama [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
scheda film] by Waad Al-Khateab and Edward Watts, among others) will also be available for audiences to explore. And that’s not to mention the screenplay readings of The Braves [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Souheila Yacoub
scheda film] by Anaïs Volpé, Olga [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Elie Grappe
scheda film] by Elie Grappe and Slumlord [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Steve Achiepo.