International Competition Award: FUCK THE POLIS by Rita Azevedo Gomes

Georges de Beauregard International Award: FRÍO METAL by Clemente Castor

Special mention of the International Competition Jury: COBRE by Nicolás Pereda

French Competition Award: BONNE JOURNÉE by Pauline Bastard

Georges de Beauregard National Award: HORS-CHAMP, LES OMBRES by Anna Dubosc, Gustavo de Mattos Jahn

Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Award: DES MILLÉNAIRES D’ABSENCE by Philippe Rouy

Special mention of the Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Jury: L’AMOUR SUR LE CHEMIN DES RONCETTES by Sophie Roger

First Film Award: FANTAISIE by Isabel Pagliai

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: LOS CRUCES by Julián Galay

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

Claudia Cardinale Foundation Award: FERNLICHT by Johanna Schorn Kalinsky

Cine+ Distribution support Award in partnership with GNCR: MORTE E VIDA MADALENA by Guto Parente

Flash Competition Award: گل‌های شب ِدریا by Maryam Tafakory

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: A PRELUDE by Wendelien van Oldenborgh

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: CONTROL ANATOMY by Mahmoud Alhaj

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: LENGUA MUERTA by José Jiménez

Alice Guy Award: ABORTION PARTY by Julia Mellen

Renaud Victor Award: BULAKNA by Leonor Noivo

Special mention of the Renaud Victor Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

High School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the High School Jury: MIRACULOUS ACCIDENT by Assaf Gruber

The Second Chance School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the Second Chance School Jury: JACOB’S HOUSE by Lucas Kane

Audience Award: LA JUVENTUD ES UNA ISLA by Louise Ernandez

International Competition Award: FUCK THE POLIS by Rita Azevedo Gomes

Georges de Beauregard International Award: FRÍO METAL by Clemente Castor

Special mention of the International Competition Jury: COBRE by Nicolás Pereda

French Competition Award: BONNE JOURNÉE by Pauline Bastard

Georges de Beauregard National Award: HORS-CHAMP, LES OMBRES by Anna Dubosc, Gustavo de Mattos Jahn

Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Award: DES MILLÉNAIRES D’ABSENCE by Philippe Rouy

Special mention of the Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Jury: L’AMOUR SUR LE CHEMIN DES RONCETTES by Sophie Roger

First Film Award: FANTAISIE by Isabel Pagliai

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: LOS CRUCES by Julián Galay

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

Claudia Cardinale Foundation Award: FERNLICHT by Johanna Schorn Kalinsky

Cine+ Distribution support Award in partnership with GNCR: MORTE E VIDA MADALENA by Guto Parente

Flash Competition Award: گل‌های شب ِدریا by Maryam Tafakory

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: A PRELUDE by Wendelien van Oldenborgh

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: CONTROL ANATOMY by Mahmoud Alhaj

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: LENGUA MUERTA by José Jiménez

Alice Guy Award: ABORTION PARTY by Julia Mellen

Renaud Victor Award: BULAKNA by Leonor Noivo

Special mention of the Renaud Victor Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

High School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the High School Jury: MIRACULOUS ACCIDENT by Assaf Gruber

The Second Chance School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the Second Chance School Jury: JACOB’S HOUSE by Lucas Kane

Audience Award: LA JUVENTUD ES UNA ISLA by Louise Ernandez

À Gaza, To Gaza

Catherine Libert

Palestine, France, Belgium, 2024, Color, 102’

French Premiere

What can you do in the face of tragedy, brutality and violence? How do we counter the powerlessness of a genocide broadcast live? À Gaza attempts to find impossible answers through a collaborative work that brings together images, stories and testimonies from the very heart of the destruction. Refaat Alareer’s poems and Catherine Libert’s voice relentlessly search for words to tell a pain which is so great as to be ineffable. A gesture of resistance and memory, À Gaza is a collective filmic monument against oblivion, an accumulation of evidence for the future, a desperate act of love for the Palestinian people.

Margot Mecca

Interview

Catherine Libert

Your film appears as a collective work, the pooling of images, stories and testimonies from Gaza to elaborate a portrait of the genocide as seen from the inside. I would like for you to tell us about the process of this collective work, regarding the people who filmed in Gaza as well as the editing and writing teams.

Everything started after the death of Refaat Alareer, in December of 2023. Before the extent and the duration of the massacres in Gaza, I felt powerless, but I perceived the movement of images was different from other genocides left invisible (like in Iraq for example), and that it was cinema’s job to go on with this task. I wrote to several Gazans I followed on social media, asking them if they were OK with me using their images. Most of them agreed. I built a stash from videos archived for months and ones my correspondents in Gaza would send. I watched close to 300 hours of genocide. My desire was to return a perceptible duration to what was happening there. The brevity of Instagram reels did not allow to truly understand the scope of this violence.

Hana Albayaty, who had worked for several years on the genocide in Iraq, helped me understand the political and historical stakes. Since most of the footage I would receive was in Arabic, she also assembled a translation team in Cairo, to help me understand what I was editing, but also to translate some of the exchanges with the Gazans. Fred Piet finalised the image edit, and made a very strong sound edit from the sound received. Simultaneously, I wrote the voice over, with the help of three friends—Christine Merville, Valérie Massadian and Oncléo—who each left their beautiful mark in the text. Loupio Dolla filmed the Mediterranean sea to trace the link between Gaza and us. The film is entirely self-produced, voluntarily made, as commitment for Palestine.

The voice over and the Refaat Alareer poems accompany the Gaza stories, continuously exploring the limits of what words and images can convey within tragedy. I wanted to know how speech, writing and poetry participated in composing the film during the editing phase.

To me the voice over was the sine qua non condition to legitimate my place in the film. I am not Palestinian, I do not live in Gaza. Therefore it felt necessary for me to talk about where I am from to show these images, necessary also to interrogate our Western gazes on these images, but also on the way they reach us, cross-cut by social media ads and selfies, if they are not simply censored. I think cinema should question more often our relation to this surge of images, to what persists in our imaginary.

The film is a testimony showcasing the urgency and the strength of the images when you feel powerless before the violence of the genocide. Could you share your thoughts on this matter today, as the brutality persists and the images of suffering accumulate?

Since we finished editing, the violence in Gaza has not stopped. The film feels obsolete already. But To Gaza was never thought as a news film: it is a testimony for history, a message in a bottle, for those who, later, will wonder: how did people survive in Gaza during the genocide?

Interview by Margot Mecca

Technical sheet

  • Subtitles:
    Screenings on 09.07 subtitled in French/English; screening on 12.07 subtitled in English only.
  • Restrictions:
    Not recommended for under-12s
  • Script:
    Catherine Libert
  • Photography:
    Motaz Azaiza, Sami Asultan, Ahmed Younis, Solband Solband, Rahaf Marwan, Mariam Abu Dagga, Lama Jamous, Mahmoud Abu Shamala, Mohammed Harara, Bashar Zaneen, Amir Gharabawi, Suhail Nassar
  • Editing:
    Catherine Libert, Fred Piet
  • Sound:
    Fred Piet
  • Production:
    Catherine Libert (Les Champs Brûlants)
  • Contact:
    Gaël Teicher (La Traverse)