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

Requiem, Requiem

Jean-Claude Rousseau

France, 2025, Color, 10’

World Premiere

As the orchestra’s choir takes its place in the chancel of the church, the trombonist warms up by blowing into his instrument. The name Mozart can be read at the top of the score about to be performed, whose title is also that of the film: Requiem. In darkness, the first notes of the final movement are heard. When the image returns, the trombonist is still, waiting for the moment when the score instructs him to merge with the music—music that the shot will carry all the way to the applause that follows the final note. While the trombone slides through the light, the image “breathes” slightly: one suspects the recording is being made with a mobile phone. Placing the viewer just behind the trombonist, this “small”, “simple” film transports us into the very heart of cinema as Jean-Claude Rousseau has practised it since his beginnings over forty years ago. Into the unchanged and ever-renewed clarity of its mystery: that act of transfiguration which makes even the humblest passer-by or extra the protagonist of their own and universal drama. The miracle is that this occurs without tragedy, without religious pathos—rather in the light tone of a Lubitschian comedy. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis. No Lord in this Requiem: it is the image that grants rest and light.

Cyril Neyrat

Interview

Jean-Claude Rousseau

How did you find yourself in that precise position, just behind one of the trombonists of an orchestra performing Mozart’s Requiem in a Parisian church? What led you there—you, your smartphone, and presumably the tripod it was mounted on? Did you intend to film? And if so, what?

I had gone to hear Mozart’s Requiem at the Swedish Church in Paris, without any intention of filming. It so happened that I managed to sit in the second row, facing the right-hand side of the orchestra, where I had a close-up view of the trombonist. It was a spot that offered a perfectly composed frame of the musician and his instrument in a diagonal line. I could see it on my phone screen—the image called for a shot. I had no tripod, but the back of the front row seat, where no one came to sit, served as a support for the phone.
All of it was unplanned, an offer from circumstance—a moment of unexpected and perfect alignment.

The film consists of two shots: the first, very brief, captures the musicians before the concert begins. The second, which follows the title, is a continuous nine-minute shot that records and follows the performance of the final part of the score. Could you comment on this structure, this division?

The first shot opens the film by showing the opening of the score where, fleetingly, one reads the composer’s name: Mozart. The choir takes their seats, the musicians tune their instruments, the trombonist adjusts his… Taken from a recording made before the concert began, this first shot is not framed in the same way as the long shot that follows. In its brevity, it forms part of the orchestral prelude, before the “right” frame is found and the performance begins.
The music is first heard over a long black screen that follows the film’s title. The image only appears once the score develops a musical phrase involving the trombone. From that moment on, until the end of the Requiem, the music is both heard and seen, as the musician experiences it.

Against all expectations, this film is, like all your films, a comedy, carried by a sense of lightness, of joy. It plays out in the depth of field, in the faces and behaviour of the musicians, alternating between action and rest. Despite the simplicity of the film, which appears to do no more than record a musical performance, there is a dramaturgy – tied to the score yet emerging in its own right—centered on the trombonist’s “role”: initially very secondary, he gradually becomes a leading figure. Is this what held your attention in making the film?

After a brief pause—a kind of respite—the trombonist turns the final page of the score: it is the Requiem’s finale, which concludes the film in the intense fulfilment of its last movement. As the piece ends, and the applause bursts out, the musician brings his hand to his head—a gesture of completion, or perhaps of release.
At this moment, he emerges as the heroic figure of the film. The film interprets him as much as he interprets Mozart’s score. His musical precision matters less than what he performs: he plays his role, and the film plays with him as much as he plays the Requiem. It is perhaps this double play that lends the film its lightness.

A few years ago, you gave another film a Latin title, In memoriam, in homage to Chantal Akerman and in memory of the victims of the Paris attacks. Requiem: no longer remembrance of the dead, but rest for their souls, though to whom this rest should be granted is never specified. Is honouring memory, granting rest and eternal light (as the Latin text of the Requiem Mass says) something that cinema – the kind of cinema you practise – can do?

In artistic creation—and in filmmaking—it is restlessness that gives rise to the work. It aspires to eternal rest by fixing reality in place. In this, it satisfies a death drive. Through the duration of the shot, the trombonist’s presence grows stronger and becomes isolated, distancing the other performers, who recede into the background like extras. He alone catches the light.
It is probably this impression that made me see a film within this long take.
To say a word in Latin is to acknowledge that it is mostly not understood. To speak it is, in a sense, to speak in order to say nothing… and I like that. Yet it is heard, and it sustains the mystery of the unspeakable. It is chanted, sung—not in a foreign tongue, but in the common voice of the sacred, like Slavonic or liturgical Greek for the Orthodox.
Musical listening and the vision of the image both open a path to the beyond. The subject becomes lost there, like the trombonist within the film’s frame. His presence lacks motive; the shot draws him out of the orchestra and separates him from it. He is angelic, caught alone in the light by the precision of the frame.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
God is an artist (and undoubtedly a geometer).

Interview by Cyril Neyrat

Technical sheet

  • Photography:
    Jean-Claude Rousseau
  • Editing :
    Jean-Claude Rousseau
  • Sound:
    Jean-Claude Rousseau
  • Production:
    Jean-Claude Rousseau
  • Contact:
    Jean-Claude Rousseau

Filmography

  • Jean-Claude Rousseau

    • Comme une ombre légère, 2005
    • Une vue sur l'autre rive, 2005
    • Trois fois rien, 2006
    • La Nuit sans étoiles, 2006
    • Faux départ, 2006
    • Deux fois le tour du monde, 2006
    • De son appartement, 2007
    • 301, 2008
    • L'Appel de la forêt, 2008
    • Série Noire, 2009
    • Mirage, 2010
    • Festival, 2010
    • Veduta, 2010
    • Nuit blanche, 2011
    • Senza mostra, 2011
    • Dernier soupir, 2011
    • Un jour, 2011
    • Attique, 2011
    • Saudade, 2012
    • Un autre jour, 2014
    • Fantastique, 2014
    • Terrasse avec vue, 2014
    • Partage des eaux, 2014
    • Remebering Wavelength, 2014
    • Passion, 2015
    • Chansons d'amour, 2016
    • Arrière-saison, 2016
    • Si loin, si proche, 2016
    • Delft dans le lointain, 2017
    • Une vie risquée, 2018
    • In memoriam, 2019
    • Un monde flottant, 2020
    • Le Tombeau de Kafka, 2021
    • Welcome, 2022
    • Souvenir d'Athènes, 2023
    • Flamenco, 2024