ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Our
idea came from the realization that, for fifteen years, short films have
attracted more and more enthusiasts. Nowadays, this format has reserved
time slots (late, short, but existent) on main channels of hertzian, cable
and satellite networks. Specialized magazines are entirely devoted to this
format. Cultural radio shows take an interest in the most renowned events.
The juries, giving awards in short films festivals, are well-know industry
professionals. But, and even more important, a surprisingly large and knowledgeable
audience is attracted to the short-only festivals. This analysis and our
own artistic preferences explain why we wish to explore all the opportunities
offered by short-format projects.
Our wish is to screen another type of shorts; shorts neither represented
nor awarded on the more "generic" festival scene. To offer a space for new
screenings to auteurs that made the voluntary choice, right from the start,
of making a different cinematography, fascinating to a large audience which
(paradoxically) is not taken into real consideration. Because there is still
plenty of space for people with dreams and nightmares in the seventh art.
Because trying to understand our society, its beauty and ugliness, is not
a monopolistic right possessed by an official directors category. Because,
through the fantastic genre and its versatile and voluntary deceiving appearances,
it is often possible to find the true thematic quality and perception of
authors suggesting to look our world from another point of view – different
but nonetheless interesting.



This was more than enough to move us to create
a festival entirely dedicated to surreal short films… a unique event in
France.
"Court MétraNge" has found a wonderful location in this city, openly involved
in culture. Not only the city but also its associated communes who have
the same ambition: to support and promote the cultural scene. A city where
the student population, constantly renewed, shares its interest for arts
and all its medias with the residents. A city with a strong associative
life which offers a great diversity of projects, collaborations and exchanges…
Hélène et Steven Pravong