Now under new management, the 16th Cinema Tous Ecrans (CTE) film festival, which takes place in Geneva from 1 to 7 November, boasts an added music-based feature, an extra venue (“Uptown’) and a redefined concept.
New festival director Claudia Durgnat has positioned CTE as a major event in both the Swiss and international cinematic landscape by perfecting the festival’s exploration of the synergy between cinema, television and new media.
A crossroads between the screens of cinema, television, the Internet and the mobile phone, CTE develops its new identity around the common denominator that unites them all: story. Every screen has a story.
This year CTE presents four competitive categories that encompass quality filmmaking,
geographical diversity and original insight focused on contemporary themes. An international feature film competition will bring together films made for the big and small screen. The TV Series competition will offer an opportunity to catch sneak peeks of the most popular TV series, and to discover a range of shows and productions less in the limelight, but just as gripping. A selection of short films will be split into two
competitions, presenting some of the best work around on both a Swiss and international scale.
A final category will be based around the use of new media technology in the creation of New Screen fiction-based films. Encompassing four competitions, this category will reach to the heart of individual creativity, focusing on interactive fiction, series and stand-alone films produced for the web, and also movies made using mobile phones (Cinema Tout Mobile).
The festival will also pay homage, in particular, to music, an aspect of the cinematic, narrative experience all too often ignored and unappreciated. For this reason, Cinema Tous Ecrans is this year extending a special invitation to one of the best composers working on film scores today: Alexandre Desplat. An innovative and prolific creative mind, the multiple prize-winning French artist has written a plethora of notable original scores, including
those of The Queen, Coco Before Chanel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Twilight: New Moon, and Syriana. Carte blanche has been given to the composer, who will be presenting a program of six films – works that he has scored and films that have inspired his work – of his choice, and will speak about his work during a talk, followed by a masterclass expected to take place on 4 November.
The 16th edition of CTE will also be an opportunity to discover the musical drama Divine Feminin, during an exceptional concert, which will take place on November 3rd. In a work that puts stars alongside memories of classic film musicals, the Traffic Quintet lead by Dominique Lemonnier – partner of Alexandre Desplat and his musical arrangements, as well as and a collaborator of photo and video artist Ange Leccia – will bring to life a
journey both aural and visual in nature, concerned with the Eternal Feminine. From Ingrid Bergman to Marylin Monroe, from Maria Callas to Isabelle Adjani and Nicole Kidman, the show revisits images associated with these mythical figures, and offers – with the music of Bernard Hermann and Jerry Goldsmith – a performance as original as it is disconcerting.
For the third consecutive year, Cinema Tous Ecrans additionally welcomes the awarding of the Grand Prix of Pacte Multimedia, which, within the framework of the New Screens category, is given to the best Swiss interactive content and multimedia fiction project.
Finally, on November 2nd 2010, it’s on the occasion of the Cinema Tous Ecrans festival that the Swissperform awards are given out, for the best male and female performances in a Swiss television production. Created nine years ago to celebrate the best Swiss made-for-TV film of the year, the Prix Swissperform now opens itself up equally to the best TV series as well. The prize ceremony will take place at the end of a round table discussion called “Being an Actor/Actress in Switzerland today,’ featuring the nominees of the 2010 acting awards.
For more information visit www.cinema-tous-ecrans.com or email info@cinema-tous-ecrans.com.
