Twenty six-year old Cape Town filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, director of the Dv8-produced feature film, Shirley Adams, is the first filmmaker from the African content to be selected for 19th session of the Cannes Film Festival’s Residence du Festival Programme. Hermanus will commence his residence on 1 October.
The Residence programme forms part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation, which was created by Cannes president Gilles Jacob nine years ago as a means of fostering new international filmmaking talent. The Residence takes place twice a year, each time inviting six first time or second time filmmakers to live in Paris for four and a half months while they prepare their film projects. To date 120 international film directors have taken up residence at the Festival’s Paris home.
Hermanus was selected from a shortlist of 12 international candidates that met with a Selection Jury Committee recently in Paris. He will be preparing his second feature film, Elective Affinity.
Shirley Adams was recently selected for Main Competition at the Locarno International Film Festival (Aug 5 – 15 2009). The film will have its World Premiere this weekend at the Durban International Film Festival, on Saturday 25th July.
Hermanus studied film at UCT and completed his masters at the London Film School. “The Residence programme has been the cherry on top of an already monumental few months for me, and I am extremely excited to be developing my next film with the support of the Cannes Film Festival,” he said.
Shirley Adams is due for theatrical release in January 2010 at Cinema Nouveau theatres. It is produced by Michelle Wheatley and Jeremy Nathan (Dv8 Films), executive produced by Roland Emmerich and Kirstin Winkler (Centropolis), with Ben Gibson of the London Film School, in association with the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), the Department of Trade and Industry Rebate Scheme (DTI) and the World Cinema Fund (Berlinale).
