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

A Thousand Waves Away, A Thousand Waves Away

Helena Wittmann

Germany, 2025, Color, 10’

French Premiere

Men and women standing in a park. Close-ups of hands, of faces, of tree trunks, of flowers. Electronic music conveys its rhythms while an elliptical narration occasionally appears on a blue screen, describing a world in disquiet, in which tenderness exists but is fragile. As the film unfolds, bodies are put in motion, slowly then faster and faster, seeking each other, touching each other, pursuing and fleeing each other. Between attention paid to others and reappropriation of our relation to the natural world, pulse as the heartbeat of the world and a way of inhabiting it.

Nathan Letoré

Interview

Helena Wittmann

Your film is an experiment about bodies in nature, edging closer or further apart. How did this project originate?

As with all my films, there were several starting points that merged to form a desire to start shooting: there was the park that I know very well and which invites you to reflect on different aspects, as it is a complex cultural and social space in constant transformation. The scenes are very loosely inspired by the first pages of The Waves by Virginia Woolf, where the group of protagonists are still kids and find temporary refuge in a garden. The state of imagining a kind of hide-away, the gestures of reference and relation as well as the fragility of these states interested me. And then there was the specific period of the pandemic which increased the desire to express physicality and terms of human relations—the images were shot in May 2020—and the film itself came into being over the following years. Years that were charged by fundamental changes and societal shifts which then further influenced the film’s character.

Pre-raphaelite paintings seem an essential visual reference point: lush nature, water, textures, flowers… Why does nature hold such a central place in your film?

I didn’t work with direct references of paintings, but I am aware that my image making is always influenced by what I have seen before and by what I see in general. And the park is of course also designed in referential terms: A Japanese garden, the Mediterranean terrace etc…
Aesthetics play a major role here.  There are certain perspectives and arrangements in my film that are directly inspired by this design, or even directed by it. One could understand the park (also) like an amazing set design and the mise en scène accordingly. And because of all this it is not mainly nature that holds a central place in my film but rather culture, I would say. If we want to talk about nature—the plants in the park are living beings, there are animals and there is us—I would say that us and all that we create as human beings can never be completely separated from nature. We are part of it. It’s a close relation, a fundamental one.

Your film is also very loosely narrated through sometimes cryptic, sometimes fairytale-like text. Why choose to include text in this manner?

The text has the same importance as the images, but it works differently. As if told from an outer perspective, one that knows much more than the characters in the film, it weaves a loose framework and then interacts with the other elements—the music, the sounds, the images and movements. It is a poetic approach that counts on the resonance that emerges between these different elements of the film. There is space left for you and anyone perceiving the film. My wish is that like that it stays vivid, that it can change its own identity, that it keeps oscillating, depending on who is relating to it and under which circumstances.

Musicality and rhythm hold a central place in the experience of watching your film. How did you work on the editing, in relation to the music?

It might be surprising, but the music came in when I had already edited the main structure of the film. I knew that I wanted to have a sound level that meets the image level on equal terms. It needed to have the same force, it needed to confront the images. When the music came in, I refined the edit of course, but the rhythm was there before. And that’s probably why it works so well for me—the edit and the music that I then chose were already of the same nature, they kind of found each other. Or we, Nika Son (the composer) and me brought together what was meant to be.

Interview by Nathan Letoré

Technical sheet

  • Subtitles:
    English
  • Script:
    Helena Wittmann
  • Photography:
    Helena Wittmann
  • Editing:
    Helena Wittmann
  • Music:
    Nika Son
  • Sound:
    Nika Son
  • Production:
    Helena Wittmann
  • Contact:
    Helena Wittmann